A little is known about the life world of orphans and even less is known about influences driving these children to the streets and how these affects both physical and mental health significances of street children. One of the greatest questions demanding our South African post-apartheid government to consider is how to deliver a response that can be both loving and sufficient in ensuring that most of these children receive love and care and have their several physical and mental needs met often?
We all know that a number of street kids most found in Johannesburg and Durban are mostly exclusively black children. To my attention, this is a self-evident why they are no white street children. During the apartheid era policies and legislations were simply but strictly implemented and monitored to provide necessitated social care for the poor white children and were consequence applied if nothing was done with regard to this of which I don’t see happening with our today’s government. The way legislation and polices are passed with regard to street kids I see no government policies strictly taken to address street children.
These children are vulnerable to different kinds of assaults including prostitution and rape which made them to be more defenceless and exposed to HIV and other related disease our government claims to address. It is of no doubt that they are the most marginalised within South African big cities due to their family backgrounds making it one of the key factors affecting the development of our cities today through crime, beggary, drug addictions and hooliganism.
If our current government claims and want to archive the goal of addressing HIV/AIDS and crime rates today, it ought to firstly prioritise in making a sound and a health city characterised by reduced levels of street kids marginalisation through sound national implemented policies that may influence intervention programs in addressing such city issues which shall then challenge and effect the reduction of children exposed to crime and HIV.
Deserting them in terms of not effecting intelligible, sound, and applicable programmes guided by national policies is not a solution but rather bringing a bunch of multiple problems in our cities which will continuously lead to street kids development instead and amount to a many wasted needed youthful population for our country`s present and future development .
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