World AIDS Day thoughts.

To mark World AIDS Day Street Action brings another story from the streets of South Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa forms the global epicentre of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Over 25 million people are now living with HIV. The disease has fundamentally changed the context from which children come to the streets, as well as the resources available to assist them. Because of HIV/AIDS and the impact that this has had upon traditional community structures, the practice of the extended family taking in orphans does not always prevail, with child headed households on the increase. As a result of the orphan crisis, children turn to the streets where they're physical needs and financial desperation makes them vulnerable to crime, substance abuse and sexual orientation. The story of Sonwabisi is typical of many children who suffer with HIV/AIDS on the streets.

Please go to our partner Umthombo's web site (www.umthombo.org) to read their World AIDS Day message. Street Action believes that today's street children living on the streets across the African continent are the forgotten generation of the HIV/AIDS crisis. We shall continue to work with our partners in Burundi and South Africa to raise the issue and to ensure that the struggle for thousands of children living with AIDS on the streets is remembered today.

A legend in Durban: The 'Bull' of Point

Sonwabisi arrived on the streets in his early years of life as his mother was a street vendor. He never really knew community life in the context of his mother's home community. He only knew the streets. By the age of eight he was streetwise and no longer living with his mother. He had become a street child. He learnt to survive on the streets, he was tough but also had a compassionate side. He sniffed glue much of the time and had terrible mood swings. One moment he could be happy and over excited, the next down and volatile. I met him when he was 12. He was a well-known character on the streets. A legend in the making.

Sonwabisi arrived on the streets in his early years of life as his mother was a street vendor. He never really knew community life in the context of his mother's home community. He only knew the streets. By the age of eight he was streetwise and no longer living with his mother. He had become a street child. He learnt to survive on the streets, he was tough but also had a compassionate side. He sniffed glue much of the time and had terrible mood swings. One moment he could be happy and over excited, the next down and volatile. I met him when he was 12. He was a well-known character on the streets. A legend in the making.

Standing in solidarity with his and trying to offer him alternatives was not easy. Contending with his mood swings left many street team workers fearful of him. On one occasion, the BBC were filming a documentary which involved street children in Durban and Sonwabisi stabbed his friend. There was blood everywhere, within seconds his mood changed and he was the one offering support to the boy and comforting him as we took the boy to hospital!

In his teen years Sonwabisi was known by everyone around the Point area of Durban. He was liked and admired by most although no-one would mess with him. He was short but stocky and extremely strong as well as fearless. He was like a bull! He helped the Durban street team on a number of occasions by introducing new arrivals on the streets to us and, occasionally, helping to keep the peace in volatile situations. He developed peripheral neuropathy from glue sniffing at about the age of 19. He suffered with painful joints and was significantly weakened. Soon Sonwabisi was showing signs of fully blown AIDS and the once strong "bull of Point" was a shadow of his former self and unable to move around. He refused to stay in hospital and was cared for by other children and youth at the notorious squat named Tong lok, in Durban's Point Road. DST pleaded with him to spend time in hospital. The children and youth of the street were shocked and concerned for him. A few months back the bull stopped fighting and he passed away of TB related to AIDS, age 21. This is the first time I have seen a collective sigh of anguish from everyone in the streets, young and old. This hurt.

There is no statistic as to how many street children in South Africa are affected by HIV/AIDS, let alone infected. One thing that Umthombo's Durban Street team (DST) knows though is that children on the streets are becoming sick and some are dying. Street children in Durban do not have access to good nutrition, good healthcare, physical excersize programs (outside of the DST) and anti-retroviral care. Despite the fact that many people in South Africa are living healthy lives with HIV, AIDS remains a death sentence for the children of the streets. We need to change this.

I will always remember Sonwabisi Mtshali for his dynamic character, loyalty, strength and vibrancy. Durban has lost a legend.

Hamba Kahle Sonwabisi

Tom Hewitt
Founder and Chair of Board Umthombo Street Children.

What's in a name?

Tom Hewitt. November 2006.

I was at a conference recently in Cape Town where a number of street children activists came together do discuss the issue. Inevitably the tired question of whether the name "street children" was a positive or negative came up. My good friend Andy Sexton, an Aussie street-child activist in Uganda stood up and expressed how he thought this question was a "red herring" and usually wasted so much time. My sentiments exactly. However, the question raises its head so often that we have discussed it in depth at Umthombo.

The question is whether the name street children is a healthy description for a group of human street children. Does it promote stigma? Most alternatives that I have heard have been even worse…for example, pavement people or children, (a remarkably bad Durban idea), awful! Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's)? Not specific enough, many of them are not orphans and street children are far more than vulnerable, they are oppressed. OVC's is a term with its main anchor being the HIV/AIDS crisis. HIV/AIDS is a huge issue among street children and compounds the issue but it is not the starting point. The street child experience was there before AIDS. Youth at risk? Not strong enough and too broad. "At risk" suggests that something negative might happen to them. Street children in Durban are beyond this. They are suffering every day. So what do the children call themselves? In Durban they have a few names that they use among themselves but if an outsider used, it would be offensive.            

Why do we need a name to describe these children? Are they not simply, children? Should their identity be so closely tied to the area they unfortunately find themselves living in. Is this a negative identity? When Umthombo's Street-child Consciousness Team, a "think tank" consisting of former street children discussed this they felt strongly that they were sick of being told what they should call themselves. It was often by well meaning people speaking for them. Interestingly, Umthombo's former street children came to the conclusion that they supported the title of "street-children" as a rallying point. There needs to be some term which clarifies that you are talking of a specific issue within the arena of Children's rights, otherwise momentum can be diluted. Bear in mind that these are former street children who have been though a process of "conscientisation" and have a very clear view of their own experiences and the structural causes of those.

After consulting with present day street children, the former street children said that it really depends what street children, as a title, stands for. One thing is for sure. Street children don't like the title "street children" if it means dirty, criminal, naughty and unruly children in peoples mind and this is what it has been synonymous with in the past. The children hate to be seen as this. However, if the word "street children" means survivors of the street life experience then the former street children feel that sentiment might be different. Why is it important? The struggle to liberate street children needs to have easily recognizable rallying points. Former and present day street children in Durban are taking control of the phrase and giving it new meaning. So for Umthombo, "street children" it is! Viva the street children of the world, VIVA! Long live the survivors of the streets, LONG LIVE! Forward with the struggle to liberate the street children of the world! FORWARD!

Is the issue still a red herring…yes…move on!

Tom Hewitt
Founder and Chair of Board Umthombo Street Children.
November 2006, Bay of Plenty, Durban