Street Children Essay

Decent Essays
“When my father got drunk he would hit me... He did it just because he felt like it… That’s when I began thinking I was nothing more than a burden. A few years later I decided to run away” (Brown). This is the story about 15 year old Crisanto a street child in Manila. After running away, he joined a gang, sniffed glue, and slept every night at the cemetery. Every day millions of children are exposed to the hazards of living on the streets.To get homeless children off the streets in Manila, facilities by the Department of Social Welfare (DSWD) need to be implemented in order to provide safety for the street children.
Children that end up on the streets in Manila are forced to endure torture and inhumane treatment while trying to survive. In
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Rayjon, a former street child, explains how after he was forced to leave school he joined a gang. The boys would scramble through garbage piles to find recyclables to make enough money to survive, and often times the boys would do drugs together (specifically sniffing glue) (Brink). Young boys are being peer pressured into doing bad things while living on the streets. Kids want to find a way to escape from reality, so they try drugs. Boys and girls should be in school learning, not forced to survive on their own. The problem of street children is only getting worse because parents are refusing help from the authority. Parents believe that they do not need help from others so decline any and all help (New Lease). Parents not admitting there is a problem is just causing more children to have to experience the everyday dangers of living on the streets. They are making the problem much worse by not providing for their families and forcing more children to end up on the streets to support themselves. This problem involves government officials and everyday people and needs all the help it can get to rid Manila of the problem (Give DSWD Opportunity). The lack of involvement from all people is causing the problem to become much worse, if people are not providing awareness then people will not help find a solution. People need to come together to find a solution because kids should no longer have to fear …show more content…
In Manila, street children represent 40% of their 100 million population (Manila 's child). This has clearly become a big problem because almost half the population faces the hazards on the streets everyday. A solution needs to be found because too many people are getting involved. Majority of the street children are boys ages 7-16 years old but 30% of street children are still girls (Street Children at Risk). It is important to realize that a lot of the kids living on the streets are males, but many girls are also living on the street which makes it harder for them to survive. Teen girls spend a lot of their time on social media, living careless lives, but in Manila many of the girls are forced to fend for themselves. They are forced to try to make a better future not only for themselves, but also for those around them. All countries but the Phillipines are street children free (Future Shorts). This shows how the poverty in the Philippines has caused them to be the only country with street children. This may not be happening globally, but it is a global problem because everyone is affected by one area’s

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