My Wondering about Wandering Street Children

Being with the street children who are better in surviving but know nothing (or limited only) about their rights and responsibilities  is an immeasurable experience. They are really aggressive and harsh especially if they feel they are being threatened, but they are also just like other children. They are just the same-innocent, playful, "makulit" and so on.  It only depends on how one approaches and treats them.

a child taking his afternoon nap on a pavement

Anyway, not so long ago, I have been wondering where street children and their families come from and why there are a lot when I first arrived in this big city of Metro Manila. I found it odd seeing them around the city. I am well aware there are really street children in the country even if I rarely see them in another city where I stayed for years. Now that they are already in front of me, several questions popped out in my mind. Base on my encounter with the street children who stay with their families mostly say their parents come from another province while some do not know their parent's origin. I asked the parents who come from the province about the reasons why they chose to come to the city. Mostly said it is because of poverty and included the following:
1. Calamities which destroyed their house and other properties; no means of living
2. Sold their properties and come to the city to look for a job and to have a better life.
3. Followed husband/wife/partner who went to the city to work.
4. Run away from their family and come to the city for work when they were younger or to escape abuse/maltreatment from family
6. Victims of human trafficking.

Migration is the common denominator above all these reasons. Most of them admitted that their notion of coming to the city and to search for their luck that would make their life better was a bad decision. They thought that the city was a promise land. They came to realize the difficulties since most of them did not finish their studies. They manage to be in the blue collar jobs but not for long because they are often abused. 

street children 

The parents can not afford their own basic needs much more to their children so they tend to let their children find their own way of survival. The children stay on street "working"-begging or scavenging in order to eat. They prefer to look for other means in order to live even to the extent of prostitution. To them "what is ABC if the stomach is empty?" Older children who roamed around the city are sent by their families to work especially if they are the eldest. They are already given responsibilities at a very young age when every other children enjoy their rights. They have little contact to their own families and would rather stay on street. 

street family sleeping

I remembered my big boss saying that there were few families living on the street before when he arrived to the country. Now, street families mushroomed everywhere around the metro. Street children find partner or "marry" at a young age (15 or 16 years old and above) and bear children. So the cycle goes on and on...