What You Shouldn't Ask Right Away

If the kid has been living on the street for more than half a year, he

normally has a shelter of his own. If he doesn't say it himself first,

i i c v e r ask where that place is (when VDNFI children invited LIS to visit

l heir attic " k i p " six months after we first met them, we took it as a sign

of great confidence:).

THE CHILDREN

IT'S NOT TRUE that all the street children are dirty and shabby.

Nou can surely see children like that on the street but. as a rule, they

are either newcomers who had no time to adapt to the situation or

those living on the street for a longtime, havinga long record of chemical

dependency and paying no attention to their appearance. Very

often these children suffer from brain lesions developing as a result of

lheir drug abuse. However, a majority of street children look just as

any other teenagers. I low can you identify them?

TELLTALE SIGNS

• Appearance. Street children almost never cany backpacks, bags or

briefcases. It's hard to say why, but in contrast with homeless

adults, street children always travel light. Probably it has something

to do with a need to often flee from somebody which is easier

to do without backpacks.

• Loitering. Street children are never in a hurry. They spend their

time sitting on the parapets or strolling around but there's no

sense of direction in what they do. Their stare is unfocused even

when they look at you. maybe due to a lack of interest or because

a direct look in the eye can be interpreted by adults as aggressive

intentions.

• Pan handling. This is the street children's main method for making

their living. While they often do it next to retail outlets, sometimes

they do it on the street.
• Footwear. Another telltale sign of a child living on the street is dirty

footwear, often off-size and out of season, sometimes worn out.

Getting new footwear is no easy thing - footwear handed out by

charity organizations is rarely modern and of the needed size,

while stealing footwear is more difficult than clothing.

• I lands. The hands of the children suffering from chemical abuse

are very dirty (when adding glue inside the polythene bag. it's hard

to keep the hands clean and nobody cares about washing them

after every fix). If the child is an intravenous drug user, his hands

are unnaturally swollen and have a characteristic unhealthy

appearance.

• Often the polythene bag containing the glue is secreted inside a

sleeve, so one sleeve is dangling loose or taut (when held by the

hand) making the kid look a little askew.

• Of course, these children can be easily identified by the paint

smell.

• The kids hangout in packs in specific locations.

DWELLING

The kids who recently ran away from home typically spend nights

where they can. which makes finding them difficult. However, it's

worth the trouble because this category has the best re-socialization

prospects.

Teenagers who become part of a street gang live in permanent,

secret pads. Asking to show their pad soon after yon make the lirst

contact is a bad idea because this info is considered secret and the perpetrator

can be punished for the disclosure while the others will treat

you with distrust.

The children are very afraid to lose their "home" and be scut to

hospital or an orphanage. These institutions arouse nothing but fear

and rage.

NIGHTS ARE SPENT

In building basements

In attics
In plant rooms

In elevator shafts

Under the railway platform

Anyhow, the pad is a difficult to access and, if possible, a dry place.

"Amenities" may vary from cardboard sheets on the concrete floor to

makeshift power supply, an immersion heater, TV and DVD player.

The main function of the pad is to ensure a relatively quiet sleep

and the possibility of a quick departure.

HANGOUTS

• At railway stations. Some of them - Belorussky, Rizhsky and

Saviolovsky — are least popular, we never saw any children there. At

Kievsky, l.eningradsky, Yaroslavsky and Paveletsky stations, staff

members told us that they had seen children looking like homeless,

but we were unable to locate them despite all our efforts (we visited

the station at different lime and on different days of the week). At

Kazansky station, we have seen just one teenager who told us he

normally hangs out at Ixursky railway station. It later turned out that

Kursky station is indeed the favorite hangout of homeless children.

• In crowded places. Near Pushkinskaya. VDXH, Alekseevskaya,

Petrovsko-Razumovskaya subway stations. The reasons for

choosing these locations: there's always somebody to solicit for

money, one can easily get lost in the crowd, but the most important

reason is the vicinity of a l) R l ' (i - S T O R F where one can buy

drugs like stadol and butarphanol. In the initial stage of the project,

some children were hanging out at Petrovsko-Razumovskaya

subway station later moving to Alekseevskaya. Officially, stadol

and butarphanol are not over-the-counter drugs, but...

Near retail outlets located in the same areas.

• In locations popular with tourists (Arbat. Okhotny Ryad, VDNH,

etc.), lor the same reason — pan handling.

FOOD

A common opinion that street children are always hungry is not

exactly true. Today, there are several Moscow-based organizations

providing food for homeless people, including Salvation Army, Active

Assistance to Children..Many Russian orthodox churches also provide

food lorthe homeless. Inanition of the body is normally caused by systematic

psychoactive substance abuse.

Besides, the children have some money obtained by pan handling

or by other methods. However, they prefer to spend this money on

dm^s. Once we saw an amazing episode when a homeless teenager

snatched a carton of cheap cigarettes from a drunken client at a tobacco

kiosk. To our surprise, the agitated teenagers (all smokers) immediately

started selling cigarettes to passers-by at half-price.

- You are smokers, you could lust on these cigarettes for a

couple of weeks, right?

- What for? You can always ask for a cigarette. As for money,

we need it right пою for a fix - the drug-store will close soon.

A meal is often just a pretext for making contact. Sharing bread

with someone implies a friendly conversation and you can find out a lot

of interesting things from the very beginning. Our experience confirms

the opinion that provision of this kind of assistance only leads to welfare

mentality. Undoubtedly, provision of food and clothing is necessary

to change the person but, without any psychological and sociopedagogical

assistance, it would do more harm than good. When a

person's only efforts are taken with the desire to get a fix. and the rest

is delivered to him on a platter, the resulting vicious circle is very hard

to break due to the absence of critical attitude to oneself and one's way

ol life. Dope becomes an indispensable medicine and all life discomfort

just an excuse for dependency.

How can you stop drinking with a life like this!

Ibis attitude is more often characteristic for adults. Children use

psychoactive substances easily, it's a sort of fun and games in which they

•.(. mi harm. When asked why they do it. a typical answer would be:

/ *ve got nothing to do anyway and I'm bored, a fix helps

me cheer up.

I lie Project's Target Audience

I he largel audience may be divided into two subgroups: neglected

i liildren and homeless children.

Neglected children typically from.Moscow and its outskirts.

irom conflicting and dysfunctional families. These children regularly

run away from home for brief periods. Alternatively, they live at home

but spend all their time in the company of homeless children living the

same criminalized life.

Homeless children - come from all over Russia, including

Moscow and Moscow region. Typically, they are either orphans or

social orphans whose parents were deprived of their parents' rights.

These children run away from their foster-parents or state-run custody

institutions (orphanages or boarding schools).

The main reason for the homeless children's plight is disparity

between the child's needs and the capabilities of the state-run system

ol social custody. Most homeless children run away from government

orphanages.

Frequently the child incapable of adapting to such an environment

doesn't get any moral support or adequate expert assistance.

On the contrary, children often encounter aggression from the staff or

"Iher inmates. In some cases, the child's disadaption results in

aggressive behavior. In our opinion, indifference, the absence of an

adult being a positive role model and violence are the basic reasons

for choosing the street.

Characteristics

The children are suspicious and, when contacted on the street,

reluctantly speak of themselves or tell made-up stories, often introducing

themselves by different names and telling different life stories.

In most cases, this is done for fear of being sent back, although there

may be other reasons for such behavior. Street contact is important for

establishing a more trusting relationship, after which the children

might show up at the MSF daytime center. After a while, the children

become more open, disclose addresses and phone numbers of their

i datives which makes possible data verification. At this stage, correctional

therapy may be started.

During their field assignments, we have encountered children who

were "newcomers'* on the street. In most eases, these children are

u-ady to change their situation, view their life on the street as unacceptable

and often return home or agree to be sent to a shelter.
Two neglected children from Balashikha aged 13. Valentin has

been living at the railway station for в days. Sasha says that he

spends nights at home. Valya is unkempt, dressed in warm windcheater

and sneakers that fall apart. Says he was horn in

Murmansk, later the family moved to Rostov-na-Do nit and some

time ago the parents found a better-paid job in Moscow. According

to the hoy. he ran away from home because he was tired oj his parents

and looking for freedom, from conversation we find out that

he had a quarrel with the parents.

We accompanied the hoys to the MSI' daytime center where

they took shower, had some food and then returned to Kursky railway

station, promising us to come to the center on a regular basis.

We never saw these boys again. Railway station "veterans" told

us that they had returned home.

In contrast with neglected children, an overwhelming majority of

homeless children are not Muscovites hut come from Moscow region

and neighboring ohlasts. Л small percentage of homeless children

come from distant Russian regions and other CIS countries.

/// December, one boy left for home in Belarus, a girl from the

Orenburg region - to her brother living in Ryazhsk and yet another

boy - to his parents living in Ryazan.

All children encounter violence in the family and at government

institutions (hoarding schools, shelters, clinics) which typically

becomes the reason lor their running away.

The children living on the street lor over a year very rarely haw a

desire to change anything. They assess their life as satisfactory,

although no one wants to live the rest of his life in the same manner.

Very often they hope for a windfall (I'll find a treasure-trove, get an

inheritance, steal and get away with it). The criteria of good and bad

are based on the principle of survival. The same principle justifies any

action. The most important values are money and force.