Romania
The Campaign „Get involved in fighting beggery"
To follow the initiative from 2006, with the ocasion of the „International Day against Child Labour Exploitetion", Save the Children continued the campaign „Get involved in fighting beggery" on 12 of June 2007 with the support of the International Office of Labour - the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC). The campaign's objectives were to offer information about the real causes and the social and legal consequences of child exploitation by beggery and to send an appeal to the citizans for an active implication in child protection.
More than 30 volunteers Save the Children and 30 specialists from the organization and from public institutions of child protection and pupils from the educational centers distributed in 10 areas from Bucharest informative materials with the phone numbers where any person that wishes to get involved can call and report cases of child labour exploitation Every child will receive personalized and specialized support (protection, counseling and education) for the purpose of social and school reintegration. At the same time, the campaign encouraged the population to watch this process, paying attention to the way the situation of the child improved.
Aproximatively 9.000 persons received informative materials , of which aproximatively 4.000 were informed about the alternatives of helping the children who beg, about the causes and consequences of the phenomenon of economic exploitation.
From the child rights point of view, beggery is one of the most severe forms of child labour exploitation, no matter what are the reasons of their parents or of the legally responsible adults. Beggery is not an anti-social behavioue, but is more a result of social exclusion through limited access to social and educational services for children who beg and their families.
Legally speaking, the Law 272/2004 regarding the protection and promotion of child rights punishes with imprisonment up to 7 years the persons who dorce children to beg and the Penal Code punishes with imprisonment from 3 to 15 years for the offence of bad treatments against children.
„By offering money to the children we send them indirectly to beg, because their parents are not motivated anymore to look for other solutions to survive, keeping the children in the same stage of social and moral degradation that affect dramatically their childhood and, by school abandonment, it limits their chances to a decent life. Our time and attention are the resouces really important for economically exploited children," declared George Roman, Program Director, Save the Children România.
The campaign was supported by the International Office of Labour - the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC).
Partners in this campaign were the General Offices of Social Assistance and Child Protection - sector 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the General Office of Social Assistance of Bucharest - the Communication and Information Center for Street Children Situation.
Dealing, also, with the problems of child labour exploitation in the rural areas, Save the Children organized on the same day, around 12:30 a play (forum theatre) in Bucsani, in colaboration with the City Hall and the school from the locality, This action had the purpose of contributing to raise the awareness of children , parents and local authorities of the consequences and risks of severe forms of labour in agriculture where thousands of children are involved.
One of the campaign's components was to evaluate the situation of children who work on the street, but also the social and educational services that exisist. Thereby, it was elaborated and distributed to the partner institutions „The Guide for Social Services from Bucharest for labour exploited children and their families". Without pretending to have an exhaustive content, the guide represents an useful tool for professionals involved in protecting child rights.
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