It is said that they are tougher than the average child, due to the resilience and immunity conferred by street life and hardship.
I am willing to believe they are immune to certain infections, and good for them. But are they immune to a mutating virus that poses more uncertainty to our modern states than we have ever experienced?
I cannot recall a time, because of an infectious disease, when economic powers like the USA went so far as to close their airports to all of Europe. I never recall France closing schools, universities, bars and restaurants because of a flu epidemic, or President Macron considering using the army to enforce collective public health rules.
This shows that what is happening is neither trivial nor entirely under control. And when situations like this arise, one can never do enough for one’s own health and that of others.
This morning a colleague rightly told me that if the presidents of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana and others decided to close schools and confine students, then the other children who are out on the streets have no business being there either. I believe it is an absolute necessity to remove them from the risks linked to the spread of this virus. The interest is twofold for our countries: they must be protected like any citizen, especially since they already live in real vulnerability, and must not be exposed to risky contact given how fast the contagion spreads and how precarious these children’s living conditions are; and it is also in the interest of the whole population and of states that these children not become key vectors for spreading the virus.
SSI-AO is working on a protection plan for these children across all the countries concerned in the region. This plan is inspired by the national strategic plans developed with each country during the regional meeting on alternative care in May 2012 in Dakar.
The lines of work revolve around: self-protection for talibé children and young people, giving them the reflexes and means to protect themselves in their current living environment (the street); removing them from risky contacts that could endanger them; identifying and preparing alternative living arrangements, whether reception or transit centers, host families, or transit shelters; and initiating the process of family reintegration as soon as the health situation allows.
Service Social International has extensive experience in alternative care and is ready to collaborate with any government, agency or organization with a genuine commitment to these populations, to protect them from this global scourge about which we have only one certainty: we do not have it under control!
Dr. Djibril FALL, Director of SSI-AO. SSI-AO contact: info@ssiao.org
