Why Sierra Leone?
"The truth is that today's street children, as an equally unloved, uneducated, hopeless, excluded class who are sensitised to violence, could in the wrong hands re-write history as tomorrow's rebels."
3. Street child work in the national context
A critical developmental and security step
Just as the crisis of street children is not a discrete issue but is rooted at the heart of society; solving the crisis is bigger than just saving these individual children - it is an important developmental and security step for Sierra Leone as whole.
On a micro-scale, street-children are a social menace, a running sore on society. They are anti-social - they pester, steal, and worse; and are demonised by the population. Some local authorities testify that even the 'majority' of court cases concern street children.
On a macro-scale, there is a greater risk still. The foot-soldiers of Sierra Leone's civil war were the marginalised and hopeless - such as the street children. The celebrated Africa journalist Richard Dowden in his recent book describes how the rebels "played on the hopelessness of Freetown-s street children . . . who had just enough education to understand that they would never see any benefit from the riches around them".
There is no mistaking the danger in the explosion of street children post-war, re-creating the conditions that facilitated war in the '90s. The truth is that today's street children, as an equally unloved, uneducated, hopeless, excluded class who are sensitised to violence, could in the wrong hands re-write history as tomorrow's rebels. How hard would it be to persuade them that war presented not only a better life-option - but a fair chance to get even and claim their due from society?
It is not over-dramatic to characterise street child work as 'deep level conflict prevention', and astute members of Sierra Leonian society are talking about the problem in precisely these terms. As one prominent regional politician explained in a personal interview, "The human time-bomb is ticking again in Makeni".
In short, from a national perspective, each street child restored to their individual potential is a social liability restored to social asset. Someone who was living in opposition to community is now living in community. Someone whose potential was only for social harm, now has the human potential to contribute to social growth. In the poorest country in the world this can only be a very helpful moment.
A critical developmental and security step
Just as the crisis of street children is not a discrete issue but is rooted at the heart of society; solving the crisis is bigger than just saving these individual children - it is an important developmental and security step for Sierra Leone as whole.
On a micro-scale, street-children are a social menace, a running sore on society. They are anti-social - they pester, steal, and worse; and are demonised by the population. Some local authorities testify that even the 'majority' of court cases concern street children.
On a macro-scale, there is a greater risk still. The foot-soldiers of Sierra Leone's civil war were the marginalised and hopeless - such as the street children. The celebrated Africa journalist Richard Dowden in his recent book describes how the rebels "played on the hopelessness of Freetown-s street children . . . who had just enough education to understand that they would never see any benefit from the riches around them".
There is no mistaking the danger in the explosion of street children post-war, re-creating the conditions that facilitated war in the '90s. The truth is that today's street children, as an equally unloved, uneducated, hopeless, excluded class who are sensitised to violence, could in the wrong hands re-write history as tomorrow's rebels. How hard would it be to persuade them that war presented not only a better life-option - but a fair chance to get even and claim their due from society?
It is not over-dramatic to characterise street child work as 'deep level conflict prevention', and astute members of Sierra Leonian society are talking about the problem in precisely these terms. As one prominent regional politician explained in a personal interview, "The human time-bomb is ticking again in Makeni".
In short, from a national perspective, each street child restored to their individual potential is a social liability restored to social asset. Someone who was living in opposition to community is now living in community. Someone whose potential was only for social harm, now has the human potential to contribute to social growth. In the poorest country in the world this can only be a very helpful moment.
