UNICEF UK has launched a new campaign to help raise money for the estimated 246,000 street children in the Philippines, who face numerous problems such as malnutrition, lack of education, whilst also being at risk to drug abuse, violence and exploitation. Whilst working alongside other local charities and the Philippino Government, UNICEF are concentrating thier efforts on taking children off the streets and putting them into shelters.
UNICEF UK Trustee and international consultant on children’s rights, Gerison Lansdown, said –
Whether it’s a right to health, education or a childhood, there’s a clear legal obligation on governments and societies to ensure that the necessary provisions are in place to ensure that it is realised for every child. Childhood is a unique window, when children develop much more rapidly. They need protection, food and shelter, family care and an environment in which they can thrive. It can only really be defined as a childhood if those things are in place.
Unfortunately, many children all over the world are forced into early labour and sexual exploitation. They’re living in situations of extreme poverty, violence and conflict. And what that does is deny them the right to a childhood. So it’s important to recognise what needs to be in place to give children the opportunity to fulfil their potential and develop without harm.
UNICEF is now helping ro provide local social workers and street educators to befriend the children and provide some life skills and basic healthcare, whicjh in turn can lead on foster care. UNICEF are also working to contact families to reunite existing street children with their parents, whilst also working within at-risk communities to help tackle the root causes of the problem.
The UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, set up in 1989, promised the world to fulfil every child’s right to be educated, to be healthy, to be treated fairly and to be heard. Though there has been significant progress, there still remains a lot to be done, as millions of children across the globe continue to suffer and die.
