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| Street
children share their thoughts about living far from their
families in a forum about the issue. — VNA/VNS Photo
Duong Ngoc |
Street
kids wear scars of abuse
HA NOI —
The dirty faces and gaunt bodies of street children are a common
enough sight in Viet Nam’s cities that they are easily ignored.
But despite their numbers— an estimated 20,541 in Viet Nam,
1,600 of whom live in Ha Noi— their reasons for being on the
streets and the hardships they routinely face are surprisingly
similar.
Many
children, girls particularly, abandoned by their parents, or
tricked into taking jobs under false pretenses, end up abused,
begging, and often forced into prostitution.
Ha Noi
resident Nguyen Ngoc Lan has been raising, five-year-old, Thu
Huong, since the girl was abandoned by her mother.
"At
first I thought she was unable to speak but I found out I was
wrong after bringing her to see a doctor," said Lan.
Huong’s
mother had prohibited the girl from talking, in order to use the
girl’s "disability" as a gimmick in begging for money.
NBM, who
requested her name be withheld, was raised by her grandmother
following her mother’s death and her father’s consequent
abandonment. At 15 her grandmother died and she was left alone.
She
initially found a job at a beer stall in her hometown in Quang
Ninh Province, working from noon till midnight. She said she was
often abused by drunk customers late at night.
NBM left for
Ha Noi to work in a barber shop but soon realised the shop,
doubled as a brothel and she was forced to prostitute herself.
Attracted by
easy money, she did not care what she was doing until the shop was
raided by the police. The girl was terrified upon learning she had
contracted HIV.
When HTK was
15-years-old, her mother took her to Ha Noi to find the girl a job
in a cafe. The woman went home money in hand, leaving her daughter
alone in the capital.
HTK was
forced to work as a maid and prostitute and was beaten by the cafe’s
owner when she tried to escape.
Street
children often bear the scars of physical and emotional abuse.
Without family, or friends, and craving some sense of security
they are easy prey, said a psychologist.
Working as
prostitutes, the societal problems associated with street children
are augmented as they become unwitting carriers of sexually
transmitted diseases.
To curb the
number of street children, Dr Nguyen Trong An, deputy chairman of
the children’s services division of the National Committee for
Population, Family and Children said the committee submitted an
action plan entitled Support the Children with Special
Difficulties to the Government in December, 2003.
Through the
project, both parents and children will learn about the risks
associated with children living on the streets. Children are also
taught about their right to an education, and means of seeking
counsel if they are abused.
The project
also aims to provide parents and children with vocational training
and will collect street children in urban centres and return them
to their hometowns or orphanages, An said. —VNS
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