Thursday, June 28, 2007

HIV and Street Children in Juba


Another trip to Juba, another story on street children - the full story can be seen on IRIN"s website:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72907
Since first covering this issue over eighteen months ago now there is still very little available for these children and the numbers are growing.
Nearly all the children I talked to said they were tired of telling their stories to people from NGO's who came along, because nothing ever came of these visits.
Some church groups claim to be working with the street children, but the children deny this.
Nobody from the UN has been to talk to the children, despite UN claims that they were going to launch an investigation into the allegations of sexual abuse published in January.
The one centre for street children, Living Water, is situated less than a kilometre from the UN HQ in Juba. This centre, according to its director, has never even had a visit from UNICEF or any other UN agency, and is soon to close due to lack of funding.