Abuse, drugs haunt street kids

More than half of the street children living in shelters in Central Jakarta have been sexually abused and one third take addictive substances, including cigarettes, glue, alcohol and opium, a study has found.

The research, which surveyed the emotional and behavioral problems and associated factors of street children living in five shelters in Central Jakarta, was conducted by a team of undergraduate students of the medical faculty at the University of Indonesia.

The research is among the winners of eight researches submitted to contest the faculty's Liga Medika Sains annual competition.

"This research is based on our concern that there are at least 170,000 street children in 12 major cities nationwide, 10,373 of whom are in the capital," one of the students, Ary Indriana Savitri, told a conference on Thursday.

She was quoting data from the 1999 Asian Development Bank report on street children in the world.

"These street children are prone to discriminations, exploitation by adults and addictive substances, all of which harm their mental health and lead to emotional and behavioral problems," she added.

Of 85 street children registered at the five shelters, 60 percent have been sexually abused, and 35.5 percent use addictive substances, especially cigarettes and glue.

Street singer, sidewalk vendor, three-in-one jockey. Kiky Sarandi has done it all since starting to live on the streets four years ago.

""I will do anything to make money to survive,"" said 19-year-old Kiky, who prefers to be called Brebes, the name of his hometown in Central Java.

When his mother moved to the Middle East to work as a domestic helper after the death of his father, Brebes started living with his aunt.

He said he eventually ended up on the streets of Jakarta after being sexually abused by his third grade teacher at junior high school.

""When my family found out about the abuse, they treated me differently and started to ignore me.

""I was ashamed so I decided to leave my hometown and here I am, living on the streets,"" he said.

""Now I'm not interested in talking about school. I am a bit sensitive about it because of the incident.""