The increase in the number of children and the role of foster care 1

The increase in the number of street children and the role of foster care

If you are a resident of Addis Ababa, there is no doubt you have witnessed the increase in the
number of children living on the streets. the children have become such a mainstay of the
streets of the capital, they have almost become an acceptable part of city life. Over time our
opinions regarding them have morphed from seeing them as only poor and abandoned
children into seeing them as criminals; we now know to hold on to our bags or our phones
tighter when they are in our immediate proximity or roll up our car windows when we stop at
a traffic light. The saddest truth is we have come to accept it. Despite the constitution of the
federal democratic republic of Ethiopia corporating a low for child right under article 36,
subsection 1 stating every child has the right:

A. to life;

B. to a name and nationality;

C. to know and be cared for by his or her parents or legal guardians;

D. not to be subject to exploitative practices, neither to be required nor

permitted to perform work which may be hazardous or harmful to his or her education, health
or well-being;

E. to be free of corporal punishment or cruel and inhumane treatment in

schools and other institutions are responsible for the care of children. what has the
constitution done for this street children? It thus far has failed to be enforced in the protection
of street children, instead we see these children not being taken care of by their parents or
guardians, we witness them engaged in hard labor or being exploited via prostitution. We are
aware they turn to theft to attain money to purchase food, and if they don't have any to eat
they abuse drugs such as benzene and glue in an attempt to numb the feelings of hunger and
cold that they face every night, which then leads to addiction.

The revised family code of the Ethiopian law defines a "minor" as a person of either sex who
has not attained the age of eighteen years old. currently, in Ethiopia around half the
population could be defined as “minors”. If we compare this percentage to the equivalent
world figure, only around a quarter of people in the world would fit the description of ‘minor’.
Therefore with such a youthful population, we can see how important factors impacting the