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Children and youth at risk on the street are often either grown up on the streets, or come to urban centers either in search of opportunity or after leaving home due to family and/or mental health problems. They often deal with issues such as substance abuse, being branded as criminals, having health problems and irregular work in the unorganized sector or as manual labourers. Today’s youth will become the largest generation to enter adulthood.

Street children may be found on every inhabited continent in a large majority of the world's cities. According to UNICEF, an estimated 100 million children worldwide live at least part of their time on the streets. There are no precise categories defining street children. They may be defined as those children who, when they experience family problems, hunger, neglect and domestic violence, escape from their homes and live part time on the streets. They are child workers, permanently on the streets and engaged in scavenging, child labor, begging, peddling drugs and petty theft. Their rights are frequently abused by the police while on the streets. The girls are sometimes raped in custody and forced to hand over their daily earnings. They suffer sexual abuse, rape, physical abuse, verbal battering, rejection, malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and dengue. Most street children are illiterate.

The rise in numbers of street children is often linked to changes both in economic systems and social provision, such as diminishing state welfare services. For example, it has been claimed that there were no street children in Mongolia prior to 1990 and the economic reforms following political change: now many children take refuge in winter in underground heating systems. In Romania street children have notoriously taken to living in sewers: a recent attempt by police to round them up and send them away failed. Western countries undertaking market reforms also experienced an increase in street children. In Britain, large numbers of homeless 16-17 year olds appeared on the city streets in the late 1980s following changes in government welfare policy, while in 1995 in one northern city, groups of children under 14 years were visibly living on the streets. /4/

In a 1993 report, WHO offered the following list of causes for the phenomenon: family breakdown, armed conflict, poverty, natural and man-made disasters, famine, physical and sexual abuse, exploitation by adults, dislocation through migration, urbanization and overcrowding, acculturation. The orphaning of children as a result of HIV/AIDS is another cause that might be added to this list. /8/

In short, on the one hand, there are some common causes of enlarging number of street children/youth in many countries of the world, on the other, every country has got its specific reasons why this phenomenon takes place.

So what can be done to stop or slacken the pace of growing level of floating children?

As an aspect of globalisation some international standards for the lives of children were introduced. Coincidentally they were contemporary with the onset of economic reforms following political change in the former Soviet Union, and the use of Structural Adjustment Polices, or austerity programmes, required by World Bank and IMF. /4/

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has now been ratified by virtually all countries with a recognised government, except the USA. The impact of the CRC is not limited to responsibilities of ratifying states in implementation and reporting, because donor agencies and states increasingly use the concept and practice of human and child rights as a measure, standard and framework for financial and other aid.

Today the convention stands as the single most widely ratified treaty in existence. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989, the promises of this historic document include children’s rights to life; to be free from discrimination; to be protected in armed conflicts; to be protected from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; to be free from arbitrary deprivation of liberty; to special treatment within the justice system; and the rights to education, health care, an adequate standard of living, and freedom from economic exploitation and other abuse.

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However, for countless children around the world, these promises have been broken. The armed conflicts that rage in all quarters of the world have produced appalling abuses of children’s rights. Hundreds of thousands of children have been pressed into service as soldiers. Millions have become refugees - displaced from their homes, often separated from their families; their future and safety uncertain. Children living outside war zones may also be subjected to routine violence. Street children on every continent endure harassment and physical abuse by police. Even schools, intended to promote the healthy development of children, may be the site of abuse against children. In some countries, the use of corporal punishment by teachers has resulted in injury and even death. In others, gay and lesbian students endure harassment and violence by their peers, while school authorities fail to intervene. Millions of children have no access to education, work long hours under hazardous conditions, or languish in orphanages or detention centers where they endure inhumane conditions and daily assaults on their dignity, in violation of the rights guaranteed to them under the convention.

Consequently, with the hundreds of thousands of children and youth at risk on the street enduring poverty and abuse, governments, non-governmental organizations and international bodies are searching for interventions to ensure the well-being of future generations, and ultimately, the economy and society as a whole.

When governments implement programs to deal with street children these generally involve placing the children in orphanages, juvenile homes or correctional institutes. However, some children are in the streets because they have fled from such institutions and some governments prefer to support or work in partnership with NGO programs. Governments sometimes institute roundups when they remove all the children from city streets and deposit them elsewhere or incarcerate them.

As for non-government organizations, they employ a wide variety of strategies to address the needs and rights of street children. These may be categorized as follows: advocacy, preventive programs, institutional residential rehabilitation programs and full-care residential homes, street-based programs (feeding program, medical services, legal assistance, street education, financial services (banking and entrepreneur programs), family reunification, dropin centers/night shelters, outreach programs) and conscientization. /8/

As another solution to the discussed problem some countries find in entrepreneurship. As a multifaceted phenomenon that cuts across disciplines it can be used to denote a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting which is opportunity-oriented. It is much more than starting a new business. Rather, it is a process whereby individuals become aware of the selfemployment career option, develop ideas, take and manage risks, learn the process and take initiative in developing and owning a business. In the context of street children and youth, entrepreneurship programmes can encourage economic empowerment, enhance incomegenerating ambitions and abilities, enable basic business management skills for operating micro-enterprises, and provide access to microcredit for the initiation of business ventures. Children and youth at risk often encounter a need for autonomy and independence, the skills for survival and the determination to survive. These qualities provide great starting points for future entrepreneurs. /1/

Then, education may also stand for a solution of the raised in the article questions. It is counted as an approach that tries to bring responsive children into the school system by providing support and encouragement and regular follow-up and monitoring. In the context of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, formal education is often seen as a magic wand of sorts, best suited towards empowering children. But a closer look at the situation shows that street children develop certain characteristics that make entry into formal education difficult.

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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in article 28, recognizes the right of the child to education. No matter how socio-economically disadvantaged, state parties are meant to offer free, compulsory primary education to all, and to encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, making them available and accessible to every child.

Vocational training is often introduced instead of formal education as a quicker, more suitable means to equip children and youth at risk with marketable skills.

Life skills training for children-at-risk in livelihood programmes is essential. As livelihood programmes are meant to ready children at risk for a future as a working adult life skills training becomes necessary.

Alongside life skills, an important factor in providing a holistic livelihood programme is teaching children how to save money. Being encouraged to save money allows children not only to plan for the future, but to create ways to channel the entrepreneurial skills that are needed to direct them into income generation and employment.

Street children themselves are sometimes trained to become street educators themselves. They belong to the peer group and are respected and accepted. They help to break down the lack of trust that street children have of social workers and helpers. Maximum participation of children in the work is a sign of best practice. Non-formal education on the street is an indication of this.

The children are helped to find income-earning activities to support themselves on the streets, such as washing cars, guarding parking areas, working as shine boys, selling products on the streets and selling plastic bags around the markets. Sadly, some are made professional beggars, drug couriers, pimps and child prostitutes. /3/

Solutions also can be found in fair trade and by creating jobs for the parents of street kids. This is one of interventions to break the cycle of poverty passed on from parents to children.

Drop-in centers for street children are common in the major cities, but they are vulnerable to the children’s love of the freedom they have on the streets. The dropout rate can be high.

There is the added difficulty of providing sufficient care that will make a difference in the lives of the children. The centers provide basic needs and shelter but the programs are usually short-lived. When children do stay longer, they are referred to centers that provide care for the long term. Residential live-in centers are expensive projects and there are not many of them. Unless they are placed in an area remote from the street and efforts are made to locate and bring the parents into the process of helping the children, their success rates will be low, as many children will be enticed to go back to the streets. /7/

Regular contacts by dedicated social workers with groups of street children may play an important role in improvement of hazardous conditions of street children/youth. The workers may relate with the children to win their trust, offer legal and personal protection against acts of abuse by the authorities and work to release the children from jails and holding cells or to get charges against them dismissed. Basic needs such as clothes, food, medical help and shelter when needed should be provided. Efforts may be made to contact parents and enable the child to visit the parents. Part-time work for older children should be provided when possible.

Livelihood opportunities for parents of the street children may also be provided by different programmes. Thus the child becomes valuable to the family, as the child is a source of financial assistance. Livelihood programmes for parents are at times an aspect of street contact, as are meetings, outings and non-formal education. There is no attempt to take the children off the streets unless they are willing to enrol in school or agree to take non-formal education courses.

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the traditional culture – myths, traditional world-perception and language they were nearly fully-preserved. Before the 1930’s every person among Evens was native-speaker and wore traditional national suite. He or she also knew a lot of traditional superstitions and had deep knowledge in the sphere of reindeer-herding. And of course every person could live in taiga and tundra because he or she was ready to do it at any moment. This knowledge was a part of traditional Even culture and was given from generation to generation thanks to their system of bringing-up children when parents teach their kids everything they know. It is traditional pedagogy and it is studied by ethnologists and ethno psychologists. Unfortunately under Soviet influence a lot of elements of such pedagogy were lost and many aspects of traditional culture as well.

One of the basic elements of Soviet Cultural Revolution was general education for national minorities. General education was given in Russian that led to the fact that Even language became not the first, but the second. Now Evens of the Bystrinskiy District are not native-speakers, in fact, they are second-language speakers, that’s why in some years this language will be called dead1. Nowadays children are taught Even at school twice a week up to the 9-th form, but they speak Even only at schools and sometimes at home with grandparents and great-grandparents. Children are also taught Magadan Even Dialect (as all student’s books and dictionaries were published in it)2, as to Bystrinskiy Even Dialect it is called vanishing and is being actively explored every day because native-speakers are disappearing. Now for everyday communication Russian is used. Vanishing of Even language some ethnologists call the main disadvantage of general education for national minorities. The fact that children are taught Even at school doesn’t change the situation at all, because they are taught Even as a foreign language and for youngsters Even remains a foreign language3 such as English or French of German, that is also compulsory. As you know one foreign language is an integral part of general education in Russian Federation, it is included into State Educational Standard. At the State Educational Standard regional component is declared. Teaching Even is a part of realization of this component in general education in the Bystinskiy District.

A lot of elements of traditional culture are closely connected with the native language. They are myths and folklore (as there hadn’t been Even written language before 1930’s), and traditional world-perception of course. Studying in Soviet schools according to State Educational Standard Even people lost a lot of elements of their traditional culture. They had to speak only Russian, they had to study Russian and Soviet history and culture, they were limited in communication with their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (grown-up people lived in tundra working as reindeer-herders and their children lived in villages at the hostels). Because of that middle-aged persons that are nowadays parents don’t know a lot about their traditional culture, myths, superstitions, traditional crafts. Secular education broke down traditional Even system of world-perception. It’s impossible to restore this system because of new way of living (new professions, secular compulsory education, lack of knowledge about this system and alterations of consciousness, etc.) Of course not only Soviet

1Личный архив автора, полевые материалы этнографических экспедиций КамГУ в с.Анавгай 13-

23.03.2005г., 06.07-15.07.2007, 15.07-24.07.2008 гг.

2Балаганчик Е.Е. Слепцова А.Д. Картинный словарь эвенского языка. Пособие для учащихся начальных классов./Санкт-Петербург: Филиал из-ва «Просвещение», 2002. – 144с.:ил.; Бурыкин А.А. Русскоэвенский разговорник./Магадан: Кн.изд-во, 1991, 134стр.; Программа и хрестоматия по развитию речи для эвенских дошкольных учреждений и для родителей, ведущих кочевой образ жизни: Пример. система методов обучения дошкольников родному языку./Магадан: Кн.изд-во, 1993. – 55стр. Текст рус.,; Роббек В.А. Словарь эвенско-русский и русско-эвенский: пособие для учащихся школ./Ленинград: издательство «Просвещение», 1988. – 263стр.

3Личный архив автора, полевые материалы этнографических экспедициий КамГУ в с.Анавгай 13-

23.03.2005г., 06.07-15.07.2007, 15.07-24.07.2008 гг.