| Charity Call To Help Child Runaways |
|
By Frazer Maude, Sky News
|
|
434 days ago
Article ID# 1547208
Original URL
|
|
Railway Children
LONDON, U K (Sky News) - The concept of "street children" is not something that only exists in the developing world.
That is what the organisers behind the International Day for Street Children, celebrated every year on April 12, hope to make people realise.
A survey jointly commissioned by Aviva and the Consortium for Street Children estimates that 100,000 young people run away from home or care every year, and end up on the streets.
Andy McCullough, who now works for the charity Railway Children, ran away when he was seven after his father died.
He was taken into care and spent a lot of time on the streets, so is well placed to explain the issues of young people in a similar situation.
He says one of the answers is for people to be more understanding of young people who may be homeless.
"These are young people who may have run away from abuse or family problems, and may well become susceptible to paedophiles or other predatory adults," he told Sky News.
"But we need to remember they are young people who need help, and who need families to give them support and direction."
But charities fear that that support can be harder to offer in an age where homelessness has been driven out of city centres because of CCTV and city centre management.
Rather than sleeping in shop doorways, young people tend to "sofa-surf", or worse, be taken under the wing of abusive adults.
And that can mean as well as becoming "invisible" to social services, it also makes it more difficult for them to come forward and seek the help they need.
The survey also highlights what the CSC says is "concerning" public misconceptions about young people sleeping rough.
It suggests 21% of Britons would feel suspicious of criminal activity at the sight of young people sleeping rough, and 68% only think of street children as existing in the developing world.
The CSC are asking for the government and society to sign a pledge to stand up for the rights of street children at www.streetchildrenday.org.
Mr McCullough agrees with the need to make politicians aware, but says the public need to start by looking at young homeless children as just that: children.
Copyright 2013 Sky News
(Copyright
Terms)
Updated 434 days ago Article ID# 1547208
Railway Children
View
Charity Profile
Visit Website
|
|
|
|
More Railway Children, India News |
|
|
|
British charity keeps India's young on track
|
|
295 days ago From Washington Post
|
|
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - LUCKNOW, India =97 A month ago, Madan Bahadur, 13, and two friends ran away from their impoverished village in Nepal, near the border with India, and rode a train to Lucknow, the historic capital of India's northeastern Uttar Pradesh state. =93I ...
|
|
|
|
|
Nantwich dad's London to Paris ride for Railway Children charity
|
|
428 days ago From Nantwich News
|
|
NANTWICH, U K - Railway Children was founded in 1995 in Nantwich and has grown into a registered UK charity which supported over 25 000 vulnerable children last year alone and at risk on the streets of India, Tanzania, Kenya and here in the UK. The charity, now base ...
|
|
|
|
|
National Express Gets on Track to Help the Railway Children
|
|
614 days ago From Breaking Travel News
|
|
LONDON, U K - NXEA staff chose the Railway Children as their nominated charity this year and almost =A31400 was donated by National Express to the charity, as a result of the survey. The Railway Children exists to help vulnerable children in grave circumstances. . ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
High speed first for Mid Norfolk Railway
|
|
765 days ago From Norfolk Eastern Daily Press
|
|
NORFOLK, U K - East Midlands Trains operated the special High Speed Train (HST) 125 service from St Pancras International, with proceeds from the fares donated to the Railway Children charity. It was the first time a HST has ever travelled on the restored Mid Norfo ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| <<
Return To
World
News |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
