Greenland sees emergence of street children

Nuuk's adults may be ready to party - but its children are desperately in need of help. Payday - or welfare day, as the case may be - is no cause for celebration for the city's youngest inhabitants, and police and private organisations have warned that children as young as six are regularly forced to fend for themselves in the chilly, inhospitable inner city.

A lost generation

"When parents drink, kids get lost. Some sleep at a friend's house, others just wander the streets until the parents crash. They won't go home again until they know their parents are asleep. Kids are especially afraid that their parents will start fighting with each other, or with friends they may bring home," said Nuuk police station chief Karl Erik Simonsen, speaking with Ritzau news agency.

Simonsen was born and raised in Nuuk, but spent several years stationed in a small town on the coast. When he returned to the Greenlandic capital, he discovered an uncomfortable new phenomenon: street children.

"We have a generation of parents on our hands that have just given up. They feel absolutely no responsibility toward their jobs or their kids. They blow their whole paycheck on alcohol - and these are the same kids we're seeing on the street today," said Simonsen.

Widening social divide

Ørgaard says the gap between well-functioning Greenlanders and socially disadvantaged segments has widened in recent years. Many Greenlanders are thriving - but a rising number are grappling with socially inherited problems.

"Social problems, in combination with alcohol abuse, are affecting more homes than previously. This is due in large part to the fact that many parents are struggling with unprocessed traumas. These parents were themselves neglected as children, but never got the help they needed, because there's a shortage of psychologists and institutions here. If we don't break this cycle, we could lose another generation," Ørgaard warned.

The lack of qualified institutions is confirmed by Hans Wiechmann, director of the Red Cross Children's Home in Nuuk, and chairman of the national association of daycare institutions in Greenland. All 20 beds in the quaint, red children's home are booked right now - and have been for years. Turnover among the center's youngest residents is low, as conditions in most young children's homes are so difficult that they never return home again.

Shortage of funding

The Greenlandic Teachers' Association, PIP, has also sounded a warning. PIP chairwoman Kaaliina Skifte told Ritzau news bureau that the current problems weren't just due to a shortage of accredited institutions for children - but the absence of a cohesive family policy as well.

"The Greenlandic government has been busy spending money on everything but children. When you come to Greenland, you see an attractive airport and shiny new buildings, but it doesn't take long before the cracks start to show. What good is it for things to look nice on the surface, when so many people are ruined inside?" said Skifte.

Greenland's cabinet minister in charge of family and health affairs, Asii Chemnitz Narup, acknowledged that Greenland - and especially the capital city, Nuuk - had major social problems to address.

"It's tragic that so many children are in need of emergency foster care. And a large part of the problem has to do with drinking," said Narup.

Later this fall, Narup will present a comprehensive social welfare plan that will secure more daycare seats and training for council social workers through 2009. But Narup has blankly refused to remove more children from parental custody.

"We cannot build a society by removing children from their homes whenever problems arise. It's an anti-family approach - the councils should do early interventions instead, to help families become self-sufficient. And that will only happen by increasing efforts at the council level," said Narup.