A new breed of street children

Kids say not so - they're just hanging out

NEW AFFLUENT groups of children are now taking to the streets, reports Parenting Counsellor and board member at the National Initiative for Street Children (NISC) Carol Rose Hagley.

Mrs. Hagley was speaking at the Lawyers' Christian Fellow-ship's seminar on "The Plight of Street Children in Jamaica" held last week Saturday at the Anglican Church House, Ellesmere Road, Kingston.

"These children are from families like ours. Most of them are middle class children but if they are not middle class children, they have proper homes and proper parents," Mrs. Hagley told the small audience, comprising representatives from the Jamaica Teachers' Association, the church, the police and a variety of groups which deal with street children.

"They have homes but they are on the street because of what we term neglect."

Mrs. Hagley stated that these children, were out there because "it's not only the material things which cause these problems with children but in large part it's the emotional starvation of the one-to-one relationship with parents."

She also pointed out that these children do not fit the public's idea of what a street child looks like.

"You will not find them on the street dirty like the other children but well dressed and in places like Sovereign Centre and other malls every evening after school," she said.

She explained that many of these new street children can be seen at various plazas from early Saturday morning "until the plaza shuts at night, and when the disco was out there (Sovereign) that is where they would frequent."

Mrs. Hagley added that street children can be found in areas like Kingston and St. Andrew, Spanish Town, Mandeville, Montego Bay and the Ocho Rios Area, basically, she said, "in the larger towns."

Meeting others

But children who hang out at these places don't see themselves and their friends that way. In fact, one teenager in Mandeville, Manchester, says that children in his peer group hang out in places like Manchester Shopping Centre and the BankHouse Mall mainly to meet other people their age.

"If they go there, it's probably because they want to meet somebody," he told The Gleaner. "Or to be seen. They want everybody to see them." To be seen, the teen explained, is to be popular."The only time I go there is Friday when I feel kinda idle and don't want to go home early."

He added that other teenagers, mostly 16 and over, also frequent the shopping plazas because certain "crews" hang out there. The teenagers who follow the crews, he said, are mostly high school girls who "go there because dem frighten fi dem (like them a lot)."

A fourth reason given is that older teens can buy drugs in some of these places.

"Some go there because they sell drugs there," the teen stated, adding that he stayed far away from such places. "They sell spinners, you know, ganja spliffs."

Another teen, Davia, stated that the Sovereign Centre was one of the "hottest places to be."

"You can't venture too far from there because everybody who is anybody hangs out there," she said. "So everybody gather there to chat people, to watch de outfit dem, to watch who ah meet who and who ah gi who bun. So for some people as soon as morning rise dem deh deh deh and if you pass back say three or five o clock, you might see the same person right there and you don't know if they left."

Davia also pointed out that some of her friends leave school and stay out until seven at night because they do not have good relationships with their parents.

"They'd rather lock de place than go home because dem no like dem parents. They can't take the pressure, you know, you people dem ah say read that or do this. It's kinda depressing to know sey you have to go home after school so you stay there 'til they lock the place," she said. "Also, some ah dem when they go home, they caan chat on de telephone so they stay out and chat all whey dem haffi chat so when they go home, they go to dey bed."

One young man, Leon in Eltham Park, Spanish Town, described being at home as "imprisonment."

"Everybody deh pan de road so why be the odd person out?" he asked. "You get to learn people business and pick up slang and things like that on the road."

The children said that they are not out there because of parental neglect because their parents have tried to get them to stay home. But "the house is too boring and you can't flex with your ole people dem (parents/guar-dians) like you flex with your friends."

"The main reason why people don't stay home," Davia told The Gleaner."is that the people who they want to see are on the road."

The teenagers stated that they would stay home only if their friends were allowed to visit more often and especially when their parents were not at home and if they had more challenging activities to hold their attention at home. "Or my parents would have to pay me," Davia said, laughing.

(Names were changed on request)

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