An hour in Drop in centre is an our off the street

Thousands of children in the region are exposed to forced begging and street life every day. Many more are at risk of becoming street involved children. States have no official data, and the only recent study on the issue – last year’s research conducted by Save the Children and Regional Network for Street Involved Children – show that these children are facing numerous difficulties in their everyday life. They spent an average from 3 to 9 hours in the streets, regardless of the weather conditions, often alone and moving from one to another neighbourhood, or even towns and cities. They are rarely enrolled in regular education, instead spending time in the street where they face risk of being trafficked, abused or hurt in any other way. Their parents and caregivers are largely unemployed, uneducated and with extremely low monthly income. Families support largely relies on collection of raw materials, social welfare assistance, begging or trading in the streets. Family members have little clothes, often are unable to ensure more than one meal per day and are often suffering from chronic health conditions or developmental difficulties.
Still heavily burdened with the aftermath of years of wars and decades of economic downfall, countries in the region do not prioritize this vulnerable population. In addition, a large number of street involved children are Roma or other minorities, and discrimination follows them from the day they are born. They are children from forgotten families living in poverty, informal settlements, many legally invisible, left to their own ways and exposed to exploitation.
Ten years ago, Save the Children joined the efforts of the non-governmental organisations and institutions to identify quality solutions for thousands of boys and girls exposed to harmful work or life on the street. Opening of Drop in centres (DiC) for street involved and at-risk children was in several occasions characterized as the most positive (and often the only) example of support provided to this population. SC helped strengthening this model and linking it to local referral systems in various locations, further contributed by strengthening and replicating quality services for street involved children in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
In SC-supported DiCs, street involved and at risk children are provided with a full range of services, from shelter to legal assistance, psychological counselling to life-skill and vocational training, access to medical care and welfare benefits, school inclusion and reintegration. In order to further empower these children and their families, Save the Children developed and started piloting the Family Strengthening Program in all its centres which aims to prevent family separation and boost parentings skills. In Serbian capital of Belgrade (population of 2 mn) we worked with authorities to develop legally binding protocol for all stakeholders in case of a child living and/or working in the street.
Save the Children in North-West Balkans currently supports the work of seven drop-in centres: in Banja Luka, Bihac, Bijeljina, Brcko and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Podgorica and Niksic in Montenegro. Together, these centres serve to close to 600 regular beneficiaries, reaching additional 7000 children through other programme activities in 2016.