Street Children

ACCD's Efforts in Confronting the Issue of Street Children

ACCD has been one of the first institutions that highlighted the issue of street children since 1990 through the pioneering initiative of HRH Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz, President of ACCD, since he announced his call "Together so that no Arab child sleeps in the street".

Among the efforts exerted by ACCD in this concern:

• Holding a Regional Workshop entitled "Confronting the Arab Phenomenon of Street Children" during the year 1999 in Cairo with the participation of 16 Arab states. ACCD has issued the Street Children book, and generated a documentary film to highlight and raise awareness concerning the problem.

• Holding a Fundraising Party in favor of street children in 2001, the donations of which were endowed in a fund to support the projects that target this group in Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, and Yemen.

• Developing an Arab project document to address the problem of Arab street children, which is based on four basic themes: enabling street children through participation, changing the negative perception towards street children, ensuring the legal protection for street children, and building the capacity and Arab networking of the civil society organizations working in the field of street children.

In collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Office, ACCD has issued Training Manuals for those who deal with street children. ACCD also organized training workshops for social workers in the field, in collaboration with UNESCO and ISESCO in a number of Arab states. In addition, ACCD has organized training workshops for media figures on the regional level, including a training workshop, in 2006, on street children, drugs and AIDS issues, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Arab Mentor Foundation.

Further, with support from UNESCO, ACCD prepared two studies on Child Law in Sudan and Lebanon, and suggested articles to ensure legal protection for street children in light of international, regional and local references adopted by the Arab states. Both studies aimed at analyzing the legal procedures applied to street children and their compatibility with the CRC, in addition to developing suggestions for legal articles to be included on Child law, a matter that would lead to the formulation of draft proposals for new laws that take into account the legal protection of street children.

Read more on:

• Street Children Program (Strategic Plan 2011 - 2013)

• Fundraising Party in Favor of Street Childre (2001)