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Urchin rehab funds end in smoke
KATHMANDU, JUN 20 -
Many street children, who are taken to the rehabilitation centres, return to the streets citing boredom and mechanical life there. Their reluctance to stay in the rehab centres has reduced the efficacy of various I/NGOs that spend millions of dollars every year for the sake of street urchins. Experts and rights activists attribute this situation to lack of psychological counselling.
“It’s boring there,” said Kiran Lama, a child who was wandering around Durbar Marg with a packet of dendrites. “We had to stay idle the whole day and it was quite irritating.”
Another child said he fled the rehabilitation centre after he was bullied there. “That was torturous,” he states.
However, responsible organisations and rehab centres seem disinterested in bringing them back to rehab houses. “We can’t forcibly bring them back,” said Kapil Khadka, a trainer at the Association for the Protection of Children (APC). “Some children love to stay in the streets, abandoned buildings and cardboard boxes. They prefer stealing or polishing shoes to staying with us.”
Some organisations, however, think street children are not to be blamed.
“Most of the organisations established to support street children do not have long-term vision,” said Krishna Thapa, director of Voice of Children. “Providing a room to sleep and food to eat is never enough. Psychological counselling and mental treatments are a must as such children have already internalised many negative things from the society they live in.”
Charging some rehab centres for irresponsibility, Thapa added, “These organisations believe that understanding child psychology is a difficult task.” Similarly, Tarak Dhital, general secretary of Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN) said, “Genuine social workers and child rights activists are needed in this field. These rehab centres are not doing enough.”
Experts claim that the NGOs working in this field are more interested in the donations provided by INGOs than improving these children’s condition.
However, Dharma Raj Shrestha, Chairman of Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB) refutes the allegation. “What can we do if these children
are not interested? Giving mental treatment is not what we do.”
Statistics show that there are some 800 street children in Kathmandu Valley. Eleven organisations are working for the cause of street children, with nine in Kathmandu Valley alone.
Posted on: 2010-06-21 08:28
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