Centre strives to rehabilitate street boys

Charles neither knew his father nor went to school. His mother, a commercial sex worker, handed him over to her maternal aunt who could not afford to pay school fees. Eventually, Charles ended up on the streets of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. "Charles mother wanted nothing to do with him from the time he was born. He was heavily involved in drugs by the age of nine," Marie Mclintoff, founder of IRIS, a rehabilitation centre and orphanage caring for street boys, said. Charles is one of the thousands of street boys who have lost their parents or guardians to prostitution, alcohol, drugs and death as a result of Sudan's 23 year long civil. The war has left an estimated two million people displaced and living in camps throughout Sudan. "Adults blame the war for the presence of street children because it has stopped their ability to function as a society in the tribal locations. For the displaced there are no rules, no support structures," said Mclintoff. Mclintoff founded IRIS, a small facility made of mud, near Mayo, a displaced people's camp, 15 km south Khartoum, in an attempt to "care for boys that had nobody caring for them,". The centre gives guidence, care and schooling to the boys. IRIS, which means 'rainbow' in Portuguese, is currently home to 40 of boys, 25 of them under the age of 13. Mclintoff said that when IRIS was opened in 2004, the boys, who were brought in by relatives had a hard time adjusting to their new home. "They would pick up bricks, glass, knives and rocks, take bars and attack the other kids. One of our children tried to slit others' throats several times," she told IRIN. Many of the boys had joined street gangs where they spent most of their time drinking alcohol and sniffing glue provided to them by other children, neighbours and families, or bought with money earned from doing small chores in the local markets. The possibility of earning money in the markets was also an incentive for the boys to stay in the streets, Mclintoff said. "The tricky part is bringing some of the "experienced" street boys into our home, because they tell their tricks to the other boys and some of them want to go to the market to make money and get a lot of glue," she added. "Once Charles was offered strong alcohol by his neighbours," Mclintoff said. Education In an attempt to integrate the boys into society, IRIS offers a "catch up" programme, where the boys can learn English, mathematics and Arabic at an accelerated pace. "Almost all of the older boys have never been to school. A 17-year old is in kindergarten, some don't even know how to hold a pencil," said Mclintoff, adding that it was a big challenge just to get the boys to participate in classes because of their hard drug usage. According to Mclintoff, when Charles first came to IRIS, he spent most of his time trying to run away so that he could get back to the drugs. He has now "integrated with the other boys, moved into first grade and can do addition and letters and numbers." Mclintoff said that although her role as "mother" of the boys can be difficult and challenging, she now had boys coming to her for help on their own, as opposed to being dragged to her institution by concerned relatives or neighbours. "They come to me and say 'I'd like a to settle down or get an education,' and I ask them how they heard about the place and they tell me the other street boys or 'drug users' told them." The bigger picture In 2000, a survey carried out by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children and other NGO's, indicated that there were 34,000 street children roaming around Khartoum State, 83 percent of them boys. Suda Elton, UNICEF's assistant project officer for child protection in Sudan, said despite the signing of a peace agreement last January which formally ended civil war in southern Sudan, the number of unsupervised children in the streets was increasing. "One has to look at the streets to be able to clarify that the numbers are rising," said Elton. UNICEF, in partnership with Save the Children and other NGO's had in the past started several projects to put the children into institutions. But after numerous cases of abuse inside the centres by other boys and some staff members, the focus had now changed to integrating the boys back into their communities. "It is very difficult to reintegrate them with their families, especially the ones that have been on the streets for a long time because they feel shame for what they have done and their relatives are ashamed of them as well," said Elton. For those children without family or who are unable to integrate back into their own, a foster family system was being set up in order to get the children off the streets. "In our experience we have found that institutionalising is not the answer and that the family environment is the only solution for these types of children," she added. Abdul, a 13 year old boy living at IRIS who recently lost his father, said he liked living with Mclintoff and the other boys. "I like learning - and yes, I do miss my father," said Abdul, adding that that he was working hard to improve his Arabic and English, and that he hoped that one day he will join a family. "We have found that showing parental love to the children has delivered them from their desire to return to the markets and sniff glue. They are becoming obedient and helpful to both one another and to the staff," said Mclintoff. "We expect these children to play significant roles in building up their community and country for the better in the future," she added.