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Instead of enjoying a childhood with protection and security, millions of children in Asia and the Pacific are abused, neglected and denied their basic rights.
Among them are children living on their own, abandoned or orphaned. Some have watched their parents die from HIV/AIDS.
Others sleep homeless on the streets, runaways from violence and ill treatment in their own families, prime targets for exploitation and traffickers.
Many are growing up in war zones where conflict shatters the safety and routine so important to children. Some are even forced to become child soldiers.
Some work instead of going to school. They’re paid next to nothing for crippling or dangerous work, ranging from carting bricks to making fireworks.
World Vision also locates and supports the children who are already in crisis, on the streets, in the factories and brothels, or living in poverty, violence and fear.
Orphaned or abandoned
Taking in somebody else’s child is a difficult decision for any family. But in very poor communities, or communities affected by HIV/AIDS, the decision is complicated by lack of resources. If they're struggling to care for their own children, people are unlikely to take on the extra responsibility of children who don't belong to them.
As a result, more and more children are living on their own, the older siblings raising the younger ones by working or begging.
Their desperation makes them prime targets for exploitative labour conditions, sexual abuse or trafficking.
And without the protection of an adult, children end up in situations where they forfeit their power or rights, just to survive.
Family poverty
Parents are the main culprits when it comes to exploitation of their own children’s rights.
The need for money means that parents may keep their children out of school so they can work, ask them to take up hazardous forms of labour, or send them into bonded labour to pay off the interest on a family debt.
Poverty also makes parents more willing to send their children away from home with relatives or strangers, believing that they will have greater opportunities or be able to send money home to the family.
In some cases, parents will accept money in exchange for their child’s migration into labour, which then becomes an issue of trafficking. The money paid can make it almost impossible for the child ever to return to their community, because the parents are unable or unwilling to pay back the money to the traffickers.
Attitudes to children
The suffering, neglect or exploitation of children is usually linked to poverty. Loving and protecting children is a basic instinct, but so is survival.
Attitudes towards children and childhood also contribute to their exploitation. In the face of poverty or instability, children are often seen as possessions, weighed up as assets or liabilities and treated accordingly.
To restore safe and happy childhoods throughout Asia, World Vision works with issues of poverty and helps communities to value their children for their own worth.
Ignorance
Children often do not know their rights, and because of this they allow themselves to be exploited. Even though laws are in place to protect children from violence, rape and child labour, they may not know about them.
But just like adults, children have a right to be heard, protected and cared for – rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Teaching these rights at community level strengthens the resolve of parents to meet their children’s basic rights and the resilience of children to protect themselves from exploitation and abuse. |
