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GIRLS IN THE STREET Here are some extracts from reports and REPER members testimonies about this important issue.
Fondation
Scelles
Paris, France The Fondation Scelles fights against the human exploitation in all its aspects (prostitution, pornography, organ traffic, sexual tourism…) and against social injustices. Its action takes place in three stages:
ACPE
Paris, France The ACPE (Association Contre la Prostitution Enfantine - action against childs’ prostitution) leads numerous actions with the authorities and often sues for damages. If the tourist is French, one can write to the ACPE who wishes, on the one hand to reveal what is happening in the field in order to make people aware of Childs’ prostitution and inform them and intervene with the authorities, which is not possible for the person living on the spot. On the other hand, the ACPE can sue for damages in a trial as it has already been done, according to French law authorizing the prosecution of French people who abused teenagers abroad.
Island
of Hope
Moscow, Russia "Prostitution is obviously widespread but sometimes we are successful in helping some young girls get out of this environment and get professional training. It is very difficult to establish contact with prostitutes and extremely complicated to communicate with them, for they are controlled: if anyone sees you talking to them, you are immediately interrupted. Moreover, if you talk to them about the possibility of getting out of this environment, the police themselves may intervene and cause you problems. Life on the street, with its sometimes dramatic occurrences, awakens in young girls a great love of freedom and suspicion of any structure likely to attempt their social insertion. (...) I then understood why she and others like her were savagely beaten as well as raped: it is done to terrorize them and completely enslave them. Their willpower is smothered, their personality smashed, their dignity lost, they lose any notion of rebelling. One of the young girls in the hostel brought Natasha to us. Her torturers had finished by losing interest in her, for she was so completely "broken up" that she must have been almost useless as a prostitute."
Brother
James, creator of Nanban Association
Maduraï, India "Actually, there are 45 girls at the centre, but their number is increasing every month. The reasons why girls end up on the streets are myriad. Little girls who have left their home on the death of their parents, whose mother has remarried and who leave home because of sexual harassment by their stepfather, whose father has remarried and who are tortured by their stepmother, who leave home because they are ill treated, who do not know who their parents are, who are sold, or thrown out by their parents because of superstitious beliefs or because their parents hate daughters, who are illegitimate, who want to be independent and without constraints, who leave because of the poverty of their family, who leave home because their parents are addicts, who suffer harassment, sexual exploitation and incest by their own father, grandfather, brother, uncle or cousin... These girls refuse to admit or even accept that they have been victims of sexual violence because of the cultural values of a society that considers chastity as absolutely sacred. That is why they do not want to talk about what has befallen them. Only after frequent personal encounters and much persuasion do these girls begin unveiling, little by little, the truth. Once they have finally been persuaded to come to the centre, the anti-social elements who exploit them voice their opposition openly, both to the girls and to those looking after them. Once the girls are safely in the centre, old customers, taking the centre for "a house of ill-repute", make repeated visits. As most of the girls are dependent upon these anti-social elements, they do not want any kind of apprenticeship; moreover, since the centre is not equipped to provide basic professional training, they remain under the influence of these people. They are naive to the point that a girl of 14, 8 months pregnant, was unaware or her condition. At the outset it is very difficult to educate these girls at the centre, for they dislike constraint and are strangers to health and hygiene. They have no idea of saving and spend what they earn immediately. They refuse to sit down and talk to us, even for five minutes. It is difficult for the educators to understand fully their situation. They can distinguish the approach of each of the educators and react differently to each of them, which does not simplify the task of helping them. Girls leaving their families for the first time meet on the street girls who have lived there for some time, and who try to lead the new ones into their rebellious life by means of false promises and alluring words. This is why we give priority to returning to the family, as quickly as possible, those young girls who have recently left home. We seek their families and prepare their return. Once we have discerned the character and aptitudes of those who come regularly to the centre, we try to motivate them to acquire capacities in keeping with their tastes. Training schemes are then suggested. Although apprentices begin by showing great interest in their apprenticeships, some of them give up and fall back into their first vocation. They then return to the centre merely for a night's shelter. In spite of our advice and counselling, some refuse to give up their old habits, with the result that they fall under the thumb of a scoundrel who abandons them after having ill-treated them and made them pregnant. The mother and the child are thus obliged to earn their living on the streets. The young mother becomes responsible not only for her own fate but for that of her child too. These girls mull over their awful situation, and to bring a little lightness and gaiety into their lives, start chewing betel, smoking, glue sniffing and taking drugs. They end up believing these practices are their reason for living. At time of writing, 21 January 1999, the centre has contacted 3.210 girls of whom 1.673 have returned to their families, 137 have gone into other institutions, 727 have learned a trade, 40 are taking course at schools and 1 has had a university education."
Caméléon
Ilo-Ilo, Philippines "Caméléon is embarking on its 5th year of existence by taking in 30 sexually abused street girls. Fed, lodged, looked after physically and psychologically, supported juridical against their aggressors, they receive educational and professional training. The families, whose poverty is often the root of the problem, are offered help by means of creating lucrative activities (e.g., manufacture and sale of jams, syrups and sweets from local produce)."
Virlanie Foundation
Manila, Philippines "Virlanie has been working with the street children of Manila for ten years. We estimate, in comparison with boys, that girls make up 20% of the street population, i.e., about 2.000 to 3.000 girls. We do not include in that number underage girls working in bars or massage parlours. The Foundation encounters girls in the street, in children's prison, but also in slums where we work with girls who are extremely marginalized. The task of the street educators is to contact, discuss and propose that the girls come to live in one of the Foundation's homes. This is an area of potential failure. Street children often set up a network of relations. They meet other children to create "children's syndicates". In Manila, most street girls prostitute themselves, some regularly, others from time to time, in accordance with the needs of the syndicate. From the beginning of 1989 the Foundation has taken in girls and boys. In 1992 we opened family homes specially for girls prostitutes. We feel their problems are different from those of the other girls and boys on the street (money, relationship with adults, ...). In fact, subsequently, we have continued to welcome without difficulty girls prostitutes in our mixed homes. We welcome more and more sexually abused children, particularly girls. Incest is one of the factors leading to prostitution. Many of the girls prostitutes have been abused in their childhood. Some girls run away from the Foundation and prefer to remain on the street. It is easy for girls to earn a little money from the prostitution. We try by schooling and training to get them to stop prostitution. We try to be available, welcoming, to care for them when ill. I'm thinking of Maribel, 14 years old, prostitute, who we have known for several years. She came to us one evening, extremely ill. She was hospitalized in the emergency ward for a few days and, on leaving hospital, went back on the street. The street educators with the Foundation's volunteers find activities for the children. The medical team works with the educators on the streets, and in the prison. On a daily basis we endeavour to give them the maximum means of getting off the street. We have set up a medical and psyhological system in the foundation. Lots of girls have, on arriving, serious problems. We must try to help them resolve them or endure them. Health, contraception, hygiene training is given regularly by the medical team in the various homes. These training schemes are mixed. Outings, leisure activities, music, dance, are all part of our activities for the young mothers. We teach them to love their baby, to educate it, to live with it... but it is hard! Some of the girls go back to the street, leaving us with the baby. We are preparing a specific family therapy programme for these young girls. We try to facilitate their return with their baby into their family whenever possible." "Because of the number of young mothers on the streets of Manila, a centre has been set up to house them. At the end of the first month, the centre accommodated 9 mothers as well as 15 children of which 6 were under a month old. A complete team (a welfare officer, a nurse and 3 ‘parents’) ran the new programme. A hairdresser was installed, financed by the Fondation Scelles and equipment sent by Belgian friends. This allows the girls to escape from prostitution and receive professional training to provide them with a better future and a stable income."
Krousar
Thmey
Phnom Penh, Cambodia "The problem of street girls is much more marginal than that of boys. As in many countries, Cambodian girls are kept at home for daily tasks. They are rarely, therefore, abandoned, and less likely to escape from the family, no matter how hard it may be. The girls we come across in the streets are often from street families. They stay on the street only when very young and are quickly recruited or kidnapped for brothels or bought as servants. In the brothels, bought by the owner (often a woman) they have no way of escaping. Considered they have a debt to repay (which the girl will often acknowledge from ignorance or fatalism), they will remain, under the female pimp's thumb, subjected to customers, mostly Cambodian or Asian of Chinese origin, who come in increasing numbers on sex tours. Although we are beginning to see Western clients, these form only a small proportion. When we contact the young women in the street, it is vital that a woman speak to them to ascertain their problems, endeavour to calm them down, talk about health problems, make them aware of the risks of remaining on the street. Our male helpers are there chiefly for security or to try to solve problems with the police or the brothels, should we learn that one of the girls we know is working in one. It is never easy. If we are successful in getting a girl out of a brothel (a rare occurrence) without the proprietor's consent, it is vital that the latter should be prevented from finding the girl, for that would imperil the security of our centres. The police and the army are more likely to cooperate with those who have money than with those seeking to protect the children whom they consider merely to be putting up with their bad "karma", resulting from their bad actions in previous incarnations. In fact, rather than protectors, it is not unusual to find the police or the military themselves engaged in this human traffic. In spite of this reality, it is important not to generalize and not to reject outright those institutions in which we are sometimes surprised to find excellent and honest collaborators, but without real power. If the girls are on the street, we try to get them into a temporary welcome centre, to reintegrate them into their family or to find them a stable solution (often a protection centre). A girl who has been a prostitute in a brothel is always a serious problem and it is not a good idea to let her mix with boys. Her self image is often that of a prostitute, a girl/object, and, to exist, she will try to tempt the oldest, even the educators, installing a veritable "suck" in the welcome centre. You wouldn't believe it! If she cannot be transferred straight away to an organization taking care of girls of the same kind, it is vital to keep her occupied permanently, to allow her, first of all, to change her daily activities by taking part in simple tasks with the cook, give her younger children to look after (she often does this very well) but we must be aware that she has a short attention span. We must quickly find her something to do, and little by little, get her involved in activities that will help her to develop a more positive image of herself, show her that each individual must decide for herself what she wants to do and be responsible for her actions. In short, turn back the tide of fatalism. We must, at all costs, avoid her labelling herself "prostitute" and being ridiculed as such by the others. We are lucky to have in our child protection centres several highly competent Khmer music and dance groups. This has proved an excellent means of stabilizing girls who have been in prostitution or lived on the street. They very soon become aware of their bodies, and, from the first graceful movements, find in the admiration of the others, a reward for their efforts, a positive image of themselves. This is very important, but they frequently won't make the effort if they are too sullied by prostitution. If they have been subjected to prostitution for too long and too deeply, it will be very difficult to get them out of a system where they might make good money, even if this is a complete fiction, for the brothel keeper keeps all the money they make. It will be very difficult to get them stabilized and to suggest a job likely to provide the wherewithal for their daily needs. In Cambodia, as in most poor countries, little jobs require a great deal of perseverance for very small rewards. If the girls do not collaborate, there is very little chance of reintegration. As to pregnant girls, we have never come across any street births. In spite of the problems linked to protecting children and their being abandoned (part of traditional tales), babies are respected, and hospital will usually accept young mother's to be. Abortion is also the solution often taken by young single girls, even if society looks down on this practice. As to prevention, an awareness programme is carried out by the NGOs directed toward women in several villages in the countryside. This awareness is integrated in literacy programmes in which, for example, learning to read will be directed towards themes such as trade in women and children, prostitution, AIDS prevention, the risks involved in moving to the big towns, of going on to the street, etc.." Vida
ASOMANING, director of Street Girls Aid
Accra, Ghana "We feel that, of all the children on the street, the fate of the girls is the worst, and that a pregnant street girl faces even greater peril. It is for them that we work daily in the streets to show them above all that we love them and that they can have confidence in us. Our principal task is thus to be on the street. In two and a half years we have counted more than 150 "child-mothers". To help and to welcome them, we have a refuge to the east of Mamori, behind the Accra state school, near the infamous public toilets. Our social workers explain to them the pre-natal care required and, when they are nearing their term, they come to live in the refuge. They give birth in nearby maternity wards and stay in the refuge for 2 or 3 months, until the baby is weaned and means of existence for the future have been found for the young mother and her baby. An enterprise of this kind is extremely difficult and requires a great deal of devotion from our social workers. At present, 19 girls are living in our refuge, 11 have given birth recently, thus our family consists of 30 members. The youngest mother is 13 years old. "Child-mothers" are extremely numerous, they work in the city and have very young children. They may bring their children to the refuge when they need medical care. Girls who have been abused or run very great risks on the street (or who are simply tired of being harassed by men) may also seek shelter in the refuge where we give them a solid course in contraception. As to AIDS, we attack the problem globally. We begin by training our social workers so that they may in turn educate the street girls, and not only those who come to the refuge. We encourage and help the street girls to undertake general or technical studies or to take up apprenticeships. We give them advice and help when they need it, and we help young girls so wishing to become reconciled with their families. We help them, with the assistance of the employers, to improve their qualifications and to find appropriate work. We simplify the setting up or the development of some small activities and bring them into contact with commercial advisers when necessary. In Street Girls Aid, we say that our refuges are prolongations of the street, by which we mean that our real task is to be on the street daily with the girls. If we do not have daily contacts with them, no action programme is possible. It is in treading the same areas of the city that we begin to set up solid ties with all the street girls."
ORPER
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo "In 1993, the opening of a drop-in centre led to the opening of a home for girls; children aged 10, 12. Life structures, conditions for admission, are the same as for the boys: education, housework hours. A nun with a diploma in psychology directs the home, assisted by 3 women educators. The experience has led ORPER to open a dispensary specially for street walkers: the building and the staff are ready, the equipment and medical provisions have been promised by an embassy in Kinshasa, a woman gynaecologist will devote one day a week to the dispensary (no question of being treated by a man!)." Solo
Para Mujeres, Guatemala
Les Trois Quarts du Monde, France
The means of survival on the street are theft for boys and prostitution for girls. Street children take drugs to forget their hunger, the cold, their fear of the police and the private militias who pursue them. The girls drug themselves systematically before meeting their customers who they would otherwise be unable to stand. The most widely used and cheapest drug is industrial solvent (thinner) which destroys the brain cells, the respiratory canals and the lungs. The girls live in little groups of friends who more or less support each other. They usually sleep on the sidewalk, principally during the dry season, or in slums in sordid hotels where drugs circulate freely in spite of the law. They leave only in the evening, on the look out for customers who will pay the wherewithal to survive until the next day.
The women educators and the doctor regularly patrol the public gardens frequented by the girls. They spot them from a distance, approach them to establish or renew contact. The fame of SPM is such that girls unknown to it approach the educator without the need of explanations. Support on the street consist principally in talking with the girls to ascertain their problems and keeping a check on the state of their health. The doctor provides first aid and takes them to the hospital in the event of serious injury or overdoses suffered during the night. The aim of this approach is to encourage the girls to come to the hostel with their baby. The idea underpinning SPM is to get the girls off the street, not to simplify their life on it.
The hostel has very simple rules: no arms, drug or stolen objects. This house is their house and they must respect it. Those already resident take under their wing the new arrivals. The availability and the ear of the educators are the hostel's cornerstones: calm reigns, there is no damage to the premises, violence is overcome. The day hostel is a place where each girl starts to make something of herself by recovering her self respect. It provides new possibilities for girls to encourage them to change their life style. The educators help them to cope with their daily and basic needs: food, health, cleanliness, but also constant tenderness, psychological support and legal back up. They share daily the household tasks. The girls prepare their own meals and take upon themselves the maintenance of the hostel, thereby providing a break with their street life (for a prostitute buys what she needs). They thus learn again gently the domestic practices drummed into them in childhood by verbal and physical abuse.
The educators try to make the girls aware of their children's needs, the goal being to avoid having the babies endure what the girls have gone through. They are given ongoing education, particularly in pregnancy and breastfeeding, which, given their financial situation, is the only means of nourishment. Stress is laid on the overall psychological development of their child.. Whenever possible, the boy friends with whom they live are involved in the educational activities, which includes videos, discussions, group therapy. This initiation is given by health professionals and, at all times, by the educators while caring for the babies. SPM seeks to ensure that the mothers shoulder their responsibilities and do not entrust their child to the State or have it adopted."
Honduras-Fraternité
Honduras "Honduras-Fraternité continues its task in a reinsertion centre taking in street girls, with their children if any. From now on, support is to be provided by means of volonteers paid by Honduras-Fraternité. These volonteers, if they are to be effective, must remain at least one year."
Aile
Latin America "Aile pointed out that, despite the law on the protection of minors and the European Directive on modern slavery, prostitutes in Paris are younger and younger. A recent study estimates at a thousand the number of homeless 13 to 18 year olds roaming the streets of Paris (usually East Europeans). Aile continues its support to various associations in Latin America or Asia, particularly in Southern India near Salem where 50 orphans are looked after in a home and on a farm."
 Created
on 29 april, 2006 - Updated on 17 november, 2007 |
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