In Brazil, street children are those children who are not supervised by their parents or other protective guardians. They live in abandoned buildings, cardboard boxes, parks, on the streets, or anywhere they can find. Most children on the streets are between the ages of 5 to 18 years old and they are deprived of family care and protection. Unprotected and unsupervised, street children are often targets of death squads, vigilante groups and police brutality. The government has made little effort to alleviate their conditions. Most children are viewed as an abomination and an infestation that has to be eradicated. Due to their low social status, they have no vote or voice and there is little impetus on the politicians to work to solve the issue. …show more content…
Generally jails are mostly full and there are very few places these children can be taken when they are picked up by the police. There are simply too many street children for the government provided resources to help.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world with a population of approximately 190 million people. The disparity between the rich and the poor is one of the largest, in which the richest 1% of Brazil's population control 50% of its income. Meanwhile, the poor 50% of Brazil live on just 10% of the country's wealth and the poorest 10% receive less than 1% of the country’s income. It is estimated that 200,000 to 8 million children live on the streets. In São Paulo only, 609 children were found sleeping on the streets; at least 50 were under 12 and unsupervised. Two-thirds of the 800,000 street girls are sex workers. Extreme poverty can lead to family disintegration and violence which causes the separation of families. A common cause for children to live on the streets is the
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It is estimated that about 110,000 children are HIV positive. Street children in Brazil compose a risk population for the contraction and transmission of HIV. Prevalence is rising rapidly, and many people in need of treatment or care are excluded from services due to poverty. Street-based youths were more often exposed to situations with high risk for acquisition of HIV infection. They started sexual activity earlier, they suffered more sexual abuse, and reported higher rates of STDs. Although the intravenous drug use was relatively infrequent, it may have been underreported owing to fear of prosecution and knowledge regarding its association with HIV transmission. The risk of exposure to HIV is rapidly becoming an enormous concern as a result of the large number of street youths engaging in unprotected sexual acts. A high percentage of underprivileged youths are exposed to multiple-risk situations for HIV and other STDs. A 1992 study of 62 Brazilian street children found that 48.4% had engaged in sex, 60% with adult men and 16.6% reported sex for money. However, only one-third of the children reported any use of condoms or protection. Despite high rates of sexual activity, attitudes regarding the use of condoms and protection are mostly negative and usage rates are low. Sexually active children that never use condoms range from 8.2% to 33.3%. Although this type of sexual violence appears to be common, they are not
... remains homeless. With a greater than 10% prevalence rate among street youth, which is about 10 times (less than 1%) the reported prevalence among the general youth population, is an easily curable STI called Chlamydia (Health Canada, 2006). This is a disease that could be spread through sexual contact with an infected partner either orally or anally. Between 1999-2003, there is a consistent increasing prevalence in street females than in males that is on the low (Health Canada, 2006). Gonorrhoea is another sexually transmitted disease that is common to street youth. The prevalence of gonorrhoea like Chlamydia is high in the street youth population as well as it is 20-30 times higher than that of the youth population in general. Also, just like the Chlamydia infection, the prevalence rates have been much higher in females than in males Health Canada, 2006).
When you hear about Brazil, what comes to your mind first? The Amazon rainforest? The Christ Redeemer statue? Soccer? Carnival? What about the 16 million Brazilians living in poverty? In Gordon Parks’ “Flavio’s Home”, the Life magazine article centers around the poverty-stricken da Silva family who reside in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy, Flavio, and his misadventures as he and his family face poverty. Parks describes poverty as “savage”, it “claims victims”, and it “spreads like a cancer”. Notice what “savage”, “victims”, and “cancer” all have in common? Among these words, they arouse a feeling of pity or sadness within the reader. These words drive the reader to think about possible ways to help alleviate poverty -- this being Parks’ purpose for telling Flavio’s story. Another way Parks brought pathos into his essay is by describing the living conditions of the slums by using personification
poor”( Papalia et al. 295). Thousands of children around the United States sit on street corners
Brazil is a vast country in South America that has experienced extreme wealth and income disparities since its independence in 1822. The uneven income distribution, combined with several other factors, is what accounts for millions of civilians living in impoverished conditions. The Northeast is the country’s most afflicted region, with an estimated 58% of the population living in poverty and earing less than $2 a day. The systemic inequality as well as lack of development and modernization has generated chronic poverty that has had detrimental effects on society in northeast and ultimately weakens Brazil.
Children should not have to go through any of that. It is quite unbelievable but “HIV rates for homeless people are three to nine times higher than report rates for competitive samples in the US. A study across four cities found a prevalence of two point three percent for homeless youth under twenty five” (“eleven facts about homeless”). “Two million and two hundred thousand children die each year due to the fact they do not become immunized. Fifteen million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS” according to Snah. The HIV rates for homeless children are not good. The rate needs to go down. Out of all the runaway youths, over forty percent have been abandoned by their parents. Also, over forty percent have been beaten by their parents (“eleven facts about homeless”). It is proven children with homeless mothers are more likely to stay with them than if their father had been homeless (“Homeless”). Almost half of runaways happen when they have been abandoned or
Young adolescents do not realize how much of a risk it is to engage in sexual intercourse even while wearing a condom. There are three ways you can get genital herpes: oral sex, anal sex, and vaginal sex. According to The Washington Post, if a condom is used 100 percent of the time during vaginal sex, condoms reduce the risk of getting genital herpes by only about 50 percent (Washington 2). It’s still safer to use a condom to reduce chances of getting other sexually transmitted diseases. But adolescents should know that your risk is only cut only half while being protected. Rob Stein mentions, that many adolescents and adults say they engage in oral sex as a less risky type of sex (Stein 2). Most of these adolescents look at oral sex as safer type of sex but
"UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work." Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) (2009): n. pag. UNAIDS. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Data has shown that in 2002 there were thirty-eight thousand street children but now that number is estimated to sixty-thousand. There are many different reasons why this massive increase happened. There were many refugees from Iran and Pakistan that were forced out of their homes. Also, fathers would either get injured or die in the war. Therefore, the orphaned children have no choice but to help support their families. The children found many other ways of earning money besides selling plastic bags. They learned how to repair bikes, work for shoe-makers or ask for alms to get the waft aromatic smoke made to ward off the devil at people passing by (Haidary).
Poverty can endanger the safety of many people. Living arrangements can put children at a greater risk of being in an unstable environment. The “instability of living arrangements and homelessness due to poverty, place children at increased risk of being injured (Leschid31).” Many experts show the less money a person makes the less affordable houses will be available, this will have a
During the 1980s, efforts increased to alert the public to the dangers of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancy, yet these problems have increased. Adolescents and young adults have been especially hard hit. Pregnancy and birth rates among teenagers are at their highest levels in two decades.
“Clinically, the HIV infected adolescents present as physically stunted individuals, with delayed puberty and adrenarche. Mental illness and substance abuse are important co-morbidities” (Naswa, 2010). Naswa, 2010 also reports that adolescences with HIV have a higher susceptibility rate to contract STD’s that the average individual due to the thinner lining of mucus in the ovaries at this stage of their development. The stigma of living with HIV is also a factor for her psychosocial development. The fact that she contracted this disease from her father further contributes to emotional trauma.
Arielle Massiah SW 7300 Sunday, March 29, 2015 Article Critique Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Factoring in the Influences of Family, Friends, and School Jeanne Rogge Steele Literature Review and Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework The social problem that the research addresses is the outrageously high rate of unprotected teenage sexual engagement and encounters. The problem was made apparent due to a survey that disclosed that not only had “three quarters of the 2,439 participants engage in sexual intercourse by their senior year, half of the participants reported that they did not use condoms and one third of the population failed to allocate the use of birth control at all; drastically increasing their exposure to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy”. Steele, 1999, p. 339.
The government likes to pretend that if high school students get taught the “abstinence-only” method they would never think of taking part in sexual activities. Statistically this is incorrect. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “56 percent of high school students are virgins”(Martin). For the 56 percent abstinence only is doing them well, but there are still 44 percent of high school students engaging in sex without knowing the precau...
Poverty extends out over all continents, making it the most widespread negative factor. Out of the world’s 2.2 billion children, approximately half live in poverty according to UNICEF. Poverty claims approximately 22,000 children’s lives per day. This statistic illustrates the struggle children that live in poverty must face in order to survive. Poverty is a root cause of hunger, disease, and lack of shelter. It is concentrated in pockets in areas such as South Africa and South Asia. Children, who must...
Fanburg, Johathan T. (1995, May). Students Opinions of Condom Distribution at Denver, Colorado, high school. Journal of School Health. v65 n5 p181(S).