Majestic Childhood

Street children are a worldwide reality. The broadest definition of a street child is “any girl or boy who has not reached adulthood, for whom the street has become her or his habitual abode and sources of livelihood, and who is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults”.
The street children are negatively viewed by society. They are most often viewed as criminals, drug addicts, and simply the rubbish of society. Consequently, street children are often mistreated. They are regularly extorted, abused, raped and killed by society. One report indicates that the average age a street child first experiences rape is at 13 years old. The same report indicates 44% of street girls will be raped and 40% of girls will resort to prostitution at some point in time.
The street children are misunderstood and their stories are not known. Contrary to popular opinion, their lives are not typically characterized by crime and amoral activities. As one author writes, “despite the popular assumption that street children are all thieves, little evidence exists about illegal activities”. Their drug use is rarely the cause of them being on the streets, but a necessary reality of surviving on the street. Drug use is, for them, one of their many coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms provide way of sustaining the police brutality, the rapes, the cold, and forgetting about their past. These children are not criminals needing punishment; they are children in need of society’s help.
Majestic Childhood is a project established to help street children by being a bridge that re-integrates them back into society. Majestic Childhood uses a strategy called Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach. The appeal of ABCD lies in its premise that together we can drive the development process ourselves by identifying and mobilizing existing, but often unrecognized assets, and thereby responding to and creating local economic opportunity for street children.

Majestic Childhood first identifies the assets of individuals, institutions, communities and of course the street children themselves. The identified assets from institutions or individuals are matched with the street children that have an interest or need in that asset then Majestic Childhood mobilizes them to work together to build on the identified assets of all involved. The key is to begin to use what is already in the community in other to help the street children.