Transcript Dr. Sarah Thomas de Benitez, Senior International Consultant

MAKING GLOBAL CONNECTIONS:
CHILDREN, THE STREETS AND US
Sarah Thomas de Benitez
1 November 2011
START WITH CHILDREN

Listen, observe, discuss, reflect
Stories of multiple deprivations - before touching
urban streets
‘My stepmother used to say she and my father quarreled
because of me – she did not want to take me in with
her other children. But my father wanted to take me.
After big arguments my stepmother used to beat me –
even when it was not any fault of mine. My father
never used to defend me or stopped my stepmother.’

Geeta, a girl aged 11 or 12, India
‘I am always asking myself about the things that
happened to me, did I do something wrong to pay for
it every day? All the things that I faced with my father
and the persons who I worked with and all the abuse
that I faced on a daily basis must be punishment for a
thing that I didn’t do…’ a 15-year old boy in Alexandria,
Egypt’
CHILDREN AND CONNECTIONS
DEVELOPING STREET CONNECTIONS




‘Push’ factors – Deprivations
The fewer/weaker connections a child has with
home, extended family, school, neighbourhood
clubs and activities… the stronger the urge to
develop significant connections in other
environments. Whether alongside or instead of…
‘Pull’ factors – Choice / Tactical Agency
‘Street-connectedness’ suggests that children
start to develop or strengthen their connections
with and within the street when other
connections are weakened, temporarily fractured,
chronically damaged or broken…
‘STREET-CONNECTEDNESS’
A PARADIGM SHIFT
On the street:
 Child as social actor developing relationships
with people and places (in everyday lives)
 Focus on children’s emotional and cognitive
associations with public spaces as well as
physical presence on the street (children can be
street-connected even when in a shelter or home)
 Child who spends time working, hanging out or
living on the street forms attachments there (not
dependent on categorization such as in/of street)
 Recognises that street-based experiences make
particular contributions to identity development
CHILDREN WITH STREET CONNECTIONS

‘’Children for whom the street is a central
reference point – one which plays a significant
role in their everyday lives and identities’
USEFUL FOR RESEARCH: TYPOLOGY OF
STREET-CONNECTEDNESS
USEFUL FOR
INTERVENTIONS
 Connections
with
street (nature/type
& intensity)
 Connections with
family,
neighbourhood,
school, services
 Understanding
rights deprivations in a
holistic context
 Restoring, building on existing, and
developing new connections to rights
SYSTEMIC SUPPORT - Gill & Jack (2008) Poverty 129
USEFUL FOR CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS
 Strengthen
healthy connections
 Prevent multiple deprivations
 Partnerships – with NGOs and private sector
 Data collection around connections
 Connected
children who trust
adults and know
their rights are
better able to
defend them
STREET-CONNECTIONS, POLICIES AND
GOVERNANCE… AND US. MUST INCLUDE:
 Law
Enforcement for
children (+ sanctions)
 Budgets for childhood
 Data Collection with
children
 Economic Policies for
child development
 Social protection policies
for child inclusion (social
connections)
 International support for
children