Posted on 1 November, 2021 7:46
About 100 million children live on the streets globally. The number of children living on the streets of Zambian cities is estimated between 13, 000 and 75, 000. These children are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse of their civil and economic rights. Their living conditions on the street render them victims of many abuses including violence, trafficking, prostitution, alcoholism, drug addiction and exploitative labour.
In an effort to “not to leave anyone behind,” Government embarked on a programme to remove, rehabilitate and re-integrate street children into the economy through skills training and linkages. The collaborative programme was implemented by the Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA), Ministry of Youth, Sport and Child Development and the Ministry of Defence (through Zambia National Service). The programme was aimed empowering street children with hands-on skills and assisted them to undergo character transformation.
The reformation and empowerment programme involved assessment and awarding of qualifications by TEVETA. The assessed street children undertook skills training at the Zambia National Service (ZNS) camps in Katete and Kitwe under the Government Youth Reformation and Empowerment. The children were drawn from different parts of the country. A total of 550 of the street children were assessed by TEVETA after completion of their training programmes in the ZNS training camps.
The training programmes included agriculture (crop and animal husbandry, horticulture and aquaculture), automotive mechanics, plumbing and pipe fitting, building construction, carpentry and joinery, cookery, shoe making and fashion design and textile technology. The hands-on skills programme integrate essential skills such entrepreneurship and financial literacy, mindset and psychosocial counseling and national values and principles.
The trained youths can perform works related to carpentry and joinery, bricklaying and plastering, plumbing and pipe fitting, cookery, and carryout mixed farming in the agricultural sector. Other economic activities they can undertake include automotive mechanics works, perform design and textile works, design footwear, and cut footwear patterns and produce quality footwear, demonstrate national values and principles and practice entrepreneurial skills.
In the past, street children training programmes did not succeed and suspended due to many factors including lack of a well-defined exit strategy for them. They were not provided with start- up kits nor access to the means of production for the sustainability of the programme. There was also lack of clear guidelines on the allocation and disbursement of funds among the participating ministries, especially those working directly in providing skills training and social protection strategies. Additionally, there were no strong linkages with other line ministries and likeminded organisations, which led to the duplication of efforts and spreading of resources thinly.
Therefore, past drawbacks in reforming and empowering street children was valuably used to develop a comprehensive and coordinated exit strategy. The exit plan is supported by different stakeholders. Each stakeholder has defined roles and clear guidelines on the allocation of funds for the implementation of programmes and its implementation to promote and guarantee continuity and placement of in society. The comprehensive and coordinated exit strategy promotes and guarantees continuity and placement of graduates in society.
The exit strategy facilitated the placement of trained youths in the formal sector in order to integrate them in the socio-economic sector. Street children skilled in tourism related programmes are placed in relevant sectors such as hotels board. Secondly, the exit plan provides for financing of trained youths for them to integrate in the informal sector for them to be self-reliant and be able to contribute to national development. Some of them got placement in the Zambia National Service production units such as poultry production, aquaculture, crop and animal husbandry agriculture, building construction, design and textile technology.
The exit plan further facilitates the formation of cooperatives to enhance the trained youth’s participation in economic activities. TEVETA and the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission have the role to provide mentorship to them through entrepreneurship training and business development services (BDS) for them to sustain their businesses. Other strategic organisations to the collaboration committed to absorb some of the skilled street children are Government departments and likeminded NGOs. The exit strategy also provides for the allocation of two (2) hectares of land for those with agricultural skills and seed capital to engage into agribusiness.
Success in helping street-involved children and youth to attain safer and more sustainable livelihoods depends on many interdependent factors. Appropriate methodologies in imparting skills (hands-on and entrepreneurial) and incorporating essential national values are critical in empowering them. Technical and vocational skills training programmes that incorporate self-awareness, self-esteem, personal development, goal setting and enterprising to generate income are crucial parts for the successful implementation of street children empowerment programmes. Combining theoretical training and practical training increase the trained youths’ employability as salaried and self-employed in different sectors.
TEVETA Zambia 2024. (MOTS statutory agency)
