• 15:13
  • Monday ,26 October 2009
العربية

Deeds not words

By-EG

Opinion

22:10

Sunday ,25 October 2009

Deeds not words

Much to the chagrin of street children, their sufferings are getting worse, while non-governmental organisations (NGOs) allegedly concerned about the welfare of these weak members of society talk endlessly about their future

The latest round in the decades-long discussions about the rights of street children came up with the usual clichéd proposals and recommendations.The speakers, including the Director of the National Plan for Human Rights, campaigned again to launch the 'National Initiative to Rehabilitate Street Children in Society'. They gave the impression that they had no idea what the strategic task of the governmental National Council of Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) was, but insisted that the NCCM should devote itself to rehabilitating these vulnerable children. In the meantime, street children are facing another delay. Before being given any assistance, they will have to wait for 'the formation of a social system to activate the mechanism for monitoring street children experiencing unsafe circumstances to intervene conveniently and early to save them and their families', as the speakers insisted.Perhaps the length of this pompous quotation merely indicates how long their wait will be.Street children are easy prey for human traffickers and child abusers; the Juvenile Police need to actually do something to protect them. We've had enough words and vague promises. The more NGOs concerned talk about the problems of street children, the longer these poor boys and girls will horribly suffer, while their ranks will only grow.