UNODC is cosponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS - UNAIDS
Summary report on the workshop with male street children at the Vijay Ghat, Delhi
UNODC Report, 7th October 2006
Shakira N Scolt
BACKGROUND
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Regional Office for South Asia through its regional project RAS/H71, 'Prevention of spread of HIV amongst vulnerable groups in South Asia' is developing a toolkit to address HIV prevention amongst substance using street children. One of the documents of the toolkit is a peer guide for street children. In order to develop an effective and child friendly toolkit for addressing the specific needs of substance using street children, a series of workshops are planned in October and November 2006.
The first workshop was conducted on 7th October 2006.
Role play on resistance skills
Kids serious with developing creatives
Workshop Objectives: The objective of the workshop held with children on 7/10/06 was to get the inputs of street children on the following:
What they perceived as issues in their daily lives, drug related or otherwise.
What they saw as possible remedies/solutions/approaches to the problem.
Whether any one of them would like to contribute their time or talent towards creating awareness on the issues of Drugs/HIV.
Participants Profile: A mixed group of street children - those who were addicted as well as those who lived among them who stayed away from drugs were selected for this purpose. The main reason for this selection was
to understand what the non users perceived as threats and issues
to understand what were the factors that contributed to them saying NO to drugs in spite of being in the midst of a peer group that were addicted
One of the sketches from the workshop
Summary: The workshop was attended by
16 children out of which
13 were all drug users. The main drug of choice being abused by them were Smack, tyre glue and correction fluid however they mentioned that most of the children on the street knew about the following drugs and have used them at some point or the other….
Smack
Charas
Ganja
Correction fluid ( the code language is 'set' since it comes in a pack of two - fluid and thinner)
Tyre glue
Mastana - ( a small ball of a crude opiate sold at paan shops for one rupee a ball)
Bhola Goli-( a variation on Mastana, also found in a powder form )
Opium
Raseela -( another form of Bhang)
Dus Number ( Nitrazepam /Camlpose /Valium - 10mg)
Dhatura
Various inject able drugs sold under the counter by chemists
Alcohol
Participants brainstorming ideas with the facilitator
When asked about how they were able to financially sustain their drug habit, they were all remarkably forthcoming and frank about the activities they indulged in such as
Begging
Stealing
Mugging
Cheating
Ragpicking
When the boys were asked about how the girls were able to get drugs and to the habit, they mentioned that the female street children were also on to prostitution. Some of them befriended male children who had more access to drugs and money.
Some of the children admitted to being sexually active, however they admitted they did not use condoms. Two youngest children of the lot knew something about HIV while others haven't heard about it.
Observations The children on arrival told us that they would not stay the whole day as they had to go for their work and they later on volunteered to stay the whole day as they found the sessions interesting. Although most of the children were under the influence of drugs at the time of the workshop the eagerness and the participation they showed towards the workshop was very encouraging.
Street Kids Workshop 7th Oct 06 - working in teams
Highlights All 16 of the children expressed that they would not want any other child to fall victim to an addiction and hence they all want to be part of any campaign or any awareness that could be undertaken by the team. The children suggested they would like to enact a skit that could be shown on cable TV which would prevent other children from taking to drugs.
Next steps… Based on the inputs given by the children some material would be generated for working with street kids. This would then be shown or field tested with the children during the next workshop scheduled to be held on the 5th of November 2006. The observations and further inputs would then be incorporated in to a module before the completion of the final draft. For the next workshop - the children will also create songs, skits and slogans for which they will be rewarded. Two of the boys have also volunteered to develop flash cards during the next workshop.
Role play on resistance skills
Kids serious with developing creatives
One of the sketches from the workshop
Participants brainstorming ideas with the facilitator
Street Kids Workshop 7th Oct 06 - working in teams
