BUJUMBURA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Burundian government plans to take strong action from the beginning of 2015 to cope with the issue of street children, a senior Burundian government official told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday, the International Day for Street Children.
"We plan to show the difference in comparison with previous years in the matter of dealing with the issue of street children. Some coping mechanisms on eradicating street life for children in Burundi are already in place," said Ignace Ntawembarira, director of the Child and Family Department of the Burundian National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender Ministry.
"More concrete measures have been planned as of 2015," Ntawembarira said, adding the Municipality of Bujumbura has already appointed a focal point that will work with the National Solidarity Ministry and other stakeholders to reinsert street children in families.
A survey conducted in January 2010 showed that the Municipality of Bujumbura alone hosts 2661 street children including 286 girls.
"We will look after children in the street life situation and we will reinsert them in normal life either in their families or other households that will accept to host them," said Ntawembarira.
He indicated that the main factors driving children into the street life are parents' poverty, their failure to educate their children, population pressure, and conflicts within the household.
"As the main reason pushing children into life street is poverty, we will provide some fundamental needs to poor families including food items, " Ntawembarira said.
Aware of the danger of street children, some of them having become adult, the Burundian government approved, in March 2014, the national strategy for the prevention and the fight against life street for children.
"The Burundian government and stakeholders in the promotion of children's rights have developed a three-year operational plan that will reinsert at least 50 percent of street children in families as of 2015," said Ntawembarira.
