Over the last couple of months, the staff from Kinnected Myanmar have been busy with surveying the effects of Covid-19 on Myanmar’s street children, and providing them with support. This is a joint project led by Department of Rehabilitation (DoR) including UNICEF, World Vision, TDH, Plan International, and Kinnected Myanmar.
The overall aim of this survey is to protect street children from coronavirus transmission. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement was issued a large budget by the Myanmar government in order to help make this happen. The first step in accomplishing this goal was to assess the needs of local street children in Yangon. In the first week of the project, staff members from various organisations met through Zoom to discuss the situation. Plan International put together a strategic survey, and members from other organisations worked out how to implement the survey itself. After this, they moved into a week of training, to ensure that all staff members were fully prepared. The week after this, in mid June, surveys began.
This required a lot of footwork from the various teams. Social and aid workers walked around the streets in areas in Yangon known to have many street children, such as Shwe Pyi Thar and Hlaingthaya, talking with children they met or were introduced to. As team members spent time with children, they shared important information about Covid-19 prevention and awareness, all the while trying to ensure that they were properly socially distanced from each other and the children.
Team members interview children
There are two types of street children in Myanmar. The first are children who have families, but have to live and work on the streets to live. There are an estimated 1.1 million child labourers in Myanmar, and many of these children face challenging and dangerous working conditions. However, when they have finished working or begging, they have a home and a family to return to. The best way of supporting these children and get them off the streets is to support their family unit. The second kind of street child requires a different kind of support. These children usually don’t have a safe family. They spend their time on the streets working, begging, and living, because they have nowhere else to be. This group includes ‘true’ orphans, where a child has lost both of their parents. For these street children safe alternative care has to be found.
Learning about germs!
These issues have been problematic in Myanmar long before Covid-19 was an issue, but restrictions and the financial hit of the virus have caused those who are disadvantaged to struggle even more. After the team undertook the survey, emergency food packages were distributed to two hundred and twenty-six families of the children. Each package costs around 50,000 kyat, and includes necessities like oil, rice and beans. Packages also included a Covid-19 prevention kit, including informative leaflets, a colouring book, hand gel, masks and soap. This has been a great start, and the plan over the coming weeks is to continue to distribute packages. At least five hundred families will be supported in this way. The teams also plan to expand their survey and assistance to Mandalay, as there are many street children and child labourers here too.
Phase one of the street children survey, which includes the current distribution of emergency food, is due to be over at the end of July. The second phase will focus on the long term assistance of individual street children and families in Yangon, which will include resettlement and alternative care for the many children who aren’t currently living in safe environments and families, something which Kinnected Myanmar is especially well equipped to tackle.
Our team is happy to be working in partnership with so many wonderful organisations, and we will continue to update you on this exciting project as it progresses!