Children with wrinkled eyes

Naked, pale, hungry, dirty! They are either despised or pitied! Albania's poverty forces many children to sell or beg. We see children in a street situation every day as they lie covered with cardboard in park benches near bus stations, cemeteries, garbage containers, beaches, besides our car at every stop of the traffic lights in the streets, in churches and mosques... Barefooted and bruised face, the 9-year-old A.R holds a plastic bottle with detergent and pursues cars. January temperatures make his lip tremble. Driven by motherhood instinct, I stop and talk to him. But he doesn`t even care what I say. I say he should go home and wear shoes! After some reluctance, he says he needs some coins and then begs me 100 ALL".I give something to him in order to convince him come with me and wear a pair of shoes. I grab his cold hand and go nearby a pile of used shoes trying to guess his foot size. His small hand is trembling. My 5-year old daughter comes into my mind and I have crying eyes! I gave the money to the selling man and he had also crying eyes. "Go - he said. I am a parent too!" He also gave away some money to the little boy. Aurel says he is from Bulqiza. His family had six, with an unemployed father who used to collect cans, whereas his mother had died from a bad disease and the four children “worked" in the street. They had never gone to school and had come to Tirana for a “better life”! Little Aurel is not the only one. In any case, we see such people either as victims or criminals! On the shoulders of these children with no childhood weighs the burden of misery, a lack of accountability on the part of adults, institutions, and society. According to one of the most current and comprehensive studies in our country on street children published in 2014 by ARSIS, GFK Albania, international experts and commissioned by UNICEF and Save the Children, it resulted that in 12 regions of the country, there were 2527 children begging in the street, but as a matter of fact, the current situation is undoubtedly even more dramatic. Like any other social category, even street children have their own subdivisions. They beg while being supervised by their parents or their tutors, and sometimes even in the presence of their mothers. They wash cars, sell cigarettes and any trifles in places where we have coffee or tea. Underage males and females sexually exploited in the streets and not protected, children in street situations become parents prematurely and they care for other children in a street situation, even though they know nothing about it. Children who just turn 16 years living in orphanages or residential care institutions also risk becoming part of the category after they leave state care. As defined by the Commission for Human Rights, a street child is called "any girl or boy for whom the street has become an abode and/or everlasting source of life, which is not protected, supervised or managed appropriately by responsible adults."I feel bad while holding Aurel`s hand. A cold wind is blowing and he continues to walk and never dares looking in the eyes, anyway he holds on my hand. Is he feeling safe? I feel guilty! At least I want him to be safe after leaving me! Despite social relevance or individual skills, we all want to live in a community where nobody feels excluded and has the opportunity to be safe and live with dignity. But this inner vocation of each of us fades away when facing official figures in our country. For disadvantaged groups, the challenges cannot be met without the help of local government and social services. Out of 400 units, for children care that must be established by law in the entire country, there are currently set up only half of them. Across Albania, children experience violence, exclusion, exploitation, abuse. Childhood itself is so fragile, short, full of dreams, fantasies, and desires. Surprisingly Aurel said he had only two wishes: having a mother and going back to school. None of his brothers and sisters went to school, although the right to education is a principle enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, which guarantees equality in front of the law and freedom from discrimination based on race, sex, social status ethnicity, and language. Article 57 of our Constitution defines that every individual has the right to education. Albanian law on Pre-university also stipulates equality to education "at all levels, regardless of social category, nationality, language, religion, gender or political convictions."The law defines the obligation to education for children as Aurel, aged 6-16 years to complete secondary education as compulsory. The law also clearly defines that parents should send their children to public or private schools to carry out compulsory education. Moreover the law has provisions for situations where parents do not send their children to school at this age without a compelling justification, or when children drop out of school, then parents, according to Albanian law must pay penalties for administrative offenses. But this law is violated every day by the institutions themselves. Given that children like Aurel are banned to attend school, or cannot afford it, the whole family is excluded from the education system, therefore, remains unable to integrate into the labor market, risking to stay poor from generation to generation. But children like Aurel living in miserable conditions not only lose the opportunity and the right to education! Children in extremely poor families like his do not enjoy fundamental rights since the lack of adequate food and the lack of health care, one of the poorest public services offered to Albanian citizens. Lack of registration in the new settlements due to the mobility of families affects access to services, even the health service that can lead to risking their lives. Aurel and other children like him might also be subject to trafficking and exploitation and this is undoubtedly the most endangered category of children. According to the Palermo Protocol, over a third of children in street situations are at risk of being trafficked. Given the lack of information, the statistics on internal trafficking and in particular on child sexual exploitation in our country, it is understandable why this category might be subject to trafficking. Making money in Albania through sexual services comprises a criminal offense, even if the person is a child. This is one of the many reasons why these cases are difficult to emerge and is even more difficult for children to receive help. I don`t want Aurel to be compromised by anything, even though he is at risk of being trafficked anytime, anywhere. Unless he becomes a prey, he will become a predator by violating the regulations and laws in order to survive. The worst consequence for the families involved in criminal activities is that they create victims of exploitation and abuse who are not supported at all by the system. The number of children who commit crimes and criminal offenses has gone up from year to year. There are few services provided for this category of children and the most important ones are missing, such as state residential shelters, vocational training services, or return to school. Teenagers abandoned and ignored children, and those who flee their homes, are the most exposed to criminal offences. They become part of criminal activities, and they are used in drug trafficking, smuggling, and theft. According to the Department for the Protection of Minors and Domestic Violence, Police Directorate in Tirana, the children involved in these activities come from the contingent of street children. Poverty leads to the disintegration of the family, although this right is sanctioned in law. In the family code adopted by Law No. 9062, dated 8.5.2003, Article 3 provides that "The state and society must provide the necessary support to families in order for these children not to leave their homes and prevent the maltreatment and abandonment, as well as maintain family stability. And this is another bill "too good to be applicable" in our gray and poor society! Children's rights are always sensitive issues of institutions and society, but it seems that our institutions do not properly understand the responsibility and the importance of implementing social policies in the framework of Albania's EU membership. Besides drafting the legislation, roundtables, seminars, projects` millions, work is needed to be done on the ground. Albania must improve living conditions, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups, as a primary task of every country and citizen, but also as one of the main requirements of EU integration, part of our odyssey. Poverty monitoring is important not only to determine the performance of the number of poor people in the country, but also to develop policies aimed at reducing the poverty of those who do not survive. Before he went away, Aurel says that today he is along with his brother in the street, and sometimes he also collects cans with his father helping family members to feed. His dream is to become a driver, and I guess this is because he runs after cars each day to wash their windshields. He looks like a little man, brutal, unhappy! He lets off my hand and does not even greet me and ends in the street again. Goodbye Aurel and I hope you forgive me, if you could forgive us all for not living your childhood!