GU 299 week 5 assignment 1 The Rough Draft

The Rough Draft

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The Rough Draft

According to Perl (2015), there are many children in our society who have been neglected by their families, parents and foster homes. These children have had some very bad and horrifying experiences that have led them seek refuge in the streets. On the streets they find that life is not how they thought. As shared by (Perl, 2015), instead of these children living free, they experience more problems. They also become more responsible because in the streets they have to provide for themselves. In this situation the children are forced to become adults and act maturely.

Despite homelessness not being something new in the society, something should be done about it. (Toolis, Hammack, 2015) shows how an estimated number of thirteen children lose their lives everyday because of being homeless in the streets. There are statistics that have been analyzed that show the mortality rates of these children. There is an analysis that shows how half of one hundred homeless children are usually at the age of fifteen or below. A good percentage of these children were able to run away from homes but most of them are usually not reported missing. Very few children in the streets come from homeless families which these kids are well taken care of because they have their parents with them (Ravenhill, 2016).

A large number of juveniles who have finished their sentence have become reluctant in going home. They have decided to remain in the streets and become homeless despite having parents who are able to take care of them. The parents of these children have neglected them, they are embarrassed because of their history in crimes. A large study shows that Some of these children haven’t been able to reform and be good, instead they go straight to commuting crimes again (Olufemi, 2016).

According to (Williams, 2016), the number of kids using drugs in the streets have increased. A large percentage of them are not emotionally stable because of the experiences they go through. Apart from being suicidal, some have experienced mental illnesses, ulcers and depression. (Olufemi, 2016) shares how lack of nutrition has been caused by poor eating habits and lack of food, chest problems have been caused because of the cold days and poor grooming for such weather.

This project is initiated to help out young children and adolescents by giving them a home or reuniting them with their parents. Through this initiative, we get to rescue many street children and provide them with shelter, clothing and education. We are able to empower many children by mentoring them, instilling life skills in them, giving them education, providing them with tutoring services. This initiative is good for the kids because it goes a long way in shaping their future.

Despite the organization providing the children with education, clothing and shelter, there are some needs that are not fully met because they are scarce. The books used for education are not enough and since more children are being enrolled, more books also are being placed as a demand. More computers also should be brought in. The writing materials are also not enough so more should be brought in. More activities meant for leisure should be introduced to keep them busy and engaged in their talents. Thus my thesis statement; increased population in homeless and and runaway children, more programs that support their welfare should be introduced in their lives.

Conflicts between parents or between the parents and their children contribute to increase in population of homeless children. According to (Aptekar & Stoecklin, 2014), the children who ran away were those that experienced conflicts in their homes. These children might have had the impression that they were not safe. An example is when a child living in a home that has been happy and suddenly start experiencing conflicts where the parents quarrel all the time and do not give the child attention or considering his or her feelings. This makes the child worried and in turn decide to runaway.

Sexual relationships between adolescence also contribute to an increased population in homeless children. ( Ruddick, 2014) shares that these relationships are usually not supported by the parents and they feel that if they run away their love will survive. (Aptekar & Stoecklin, 2014), also shares that a majority of these adolescents usually run away because of early unwanted pregnancies. A young couple in high school who start engaging in sexual behavior, get pregnant and because of the shame and guilt they decide to run away.

Physical or sexual abuse on adolescents or young children has led to an increased population in homeless children. According to ( Keuroghlian & Shtasel, 2014), children who are physically or sexually abused at home or in school and do not feel safe. These children tend to seek help and refuge elsewhere. An example is when a step father molests his step daughter. When the daughter tries to speak up in school or at home to her mother, she is silenced by being threatened. She doesn’t feel safe in such a home this decides to run away and seek refuge.

Adolescents who have made bad decisions to engage in drugs also have the tendencies of running away from their homes. According to (Tyler & Melander, 2015), the adolescents who engage in drugs tend to commit crimes like robbery and burglary. They commit these crimes in order to sustain their addiction. An example is a high school boy who starts associating himself with bad company maybe teenage drop outs and start using drugs like cocaine. The money his parents give him as lunch money or up keep is not enough to sustain his addiction. He thus decides to start robbing. He later feels ashamed and is afraid to face the consequences so he runs away.

These adolescents and children are at risk of losing their lives in the streets and engaging in bad behaviors and crime. As shared by (Ruddick, 2014), the adolescents indulge in prostitution in order to sustain their lives financially. This behavior can lead to promiscuity where they indulge in young sex, drugs. As shared by (Goode, 2015), their promiscuity can result to sexually transmitted infections and adverse diseases like HIV and AIDS.

As shared by ( Tyler & Melander, 2015), adolescents in the streets tend to get suicidal. Their livelihood where some them are indulging in prostitution, some have issues with themselves and what they have experienced either through abuse or are sick with HIV and AIDS (Goode, 2015). Such situations give them depression and they might not want to live with all that and the guilt thus decide to commit suicide.

According to ( Keuroghlian & Shtasel, 2014), adolescents in the streets are prone to selling drugs in order to survive and sustain their livelihood. A large percentage of those who sell drugs use those drugs as well. Thus many adolescents in the streets have become drug addicts. (Tyler and Melander, 2015) shares how peer pressure is not the only way these children use drugs but also because of depression and stress. They use drugs to run away from their problems. These adolescents are later forced to joking gangs and participate in illegal behavior to sustain their addiction.

According to (Toolis & Hammack, 2015), children on the streets have low mortality rate. Apart from their environment, lack of balanced diet, good clothing especially during winter and cold weather, they have poor health care. Many children who get sick and since they cannot afford off the shelf drugs or health care, they lose their lives. As shared (Aptekar & Stoecklin, 2014), lack of proper diet and health care are the major challenges faced by the homeless children.

Children in the streets sometimes are wrongly accused because of their environment and desperation. Sometimes the people in the community are tired of having them around and when there are too much bad activity around, they blame them. Thus many children are likely to go to jail for crimes they did not know of or commit. Their lack of finances to pay for bail or for a good lawyer who would reduce their sentence is a disadvantage. Their times get wasted and their emotional state distorted. They might go through torture from bullies or bad companies.

In this work I used both primary and secondary data to acquire information. Gathering data on the adolescents and young children was interesting. I was able to use books from the library, where I got some of the ideas for the program of this project. I found some other information from articles either online from websites or in magazines and newspapers. They had contents on the previous data on my project which I found it very useful. I was also able to interview some of the adolescents and young children who were once homeless to know what led to their decisions and how they survived in the streets before they were rescued.

According to (Ravenhill, 2016), there is an increase in population in homeless adolescents and young children have led to an increasing more programs that support their welfare should be introduced. (Olufemi, 2016)shares how the population increases because of the conflicts between adolescents, physical and sexual abuse on adolescents and small children and bad decisions made by adolescents. This project aims at helping the homeless and run away kids from going through the bad experiences others go through.

Reference

EE Toolis, PL Hammack. (2015), The lived experience of homeless youth, A narrative approach.

KA Tyler, LA Melander. (2015), Child abuse, street victimization, and substance use among homeless young adults

SM Ruddick. (2014), Young and homeless in Hollywood, Mapping the social imaginary.

L Aptekar, D Stoecklin. (2014), Street children and homeless youth.

AS Keuroghlian, D Shtasel. (2014), Out on the street

M Ravenhill. (2016), The culture of homelessness

JC Williams. (2016), A roof over my head

OA Olufemi. (2016), The homeless problem, Planning, phenomenology and gender perspectives

L Perl. (2015), Veterans and homelessness

E Goode. (2015), Deviant behavior