The 18th of July is Mandela Day. Nelson Mandela’s phenomenal legacy includes his compassion for children and their rights.
Madiba’s compassion for the rights of children, and particularly those who are vulnerable and/or at risk is evident from his commitment in a speech on 16 June 1994:
“In a humble attempt to contribute to this effort, I am consulting with relevant individuals and bodies, for me to set up a Presidential Trust Fund representative of people beyond the ANC and the mass democratic movement, to specifically deal with the problems of street children and detainees. I intend to make a contribution of R150,000 a year to this fund – irrespective of the decision that parliament will make about the salaries of elected representatives.”
This was the first step towards his establishment of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) in 1995 to create awareness on how children should be treated and to give voice and dignity to children through a rights-based movement.
The right to a basic education is a prominent and consistent feature of Madiba’s legacy together with the plight of street children, as is evident from his words on 1 June 1994:
“Legislation to introduce free and quality education for all children will be introduced at the next parliamentary session. Among the measures that are also under urgent consideration are the conditions of street children, and ways in which the government can contribute to alleviate and finally eradicate their plight.”
No surprise that in 1995 in celebration of his 77th birthday, President Mandela invited children from all over the country to his birthday party, and in particular street children. It also included children living and working on streets from Bloemfontein, and Marita van Kraayenburg, manager at Kidz Care Trust* in Bloemfontein remember this historic and significant birthday party:
“This was Madiba’s first birthday party for children and our kids were there in 1995! Alas, all of them are adults today, but we still remember that Madiba thought it a generous action and a symbolic gesture to focus on one of the most marginalised and neglected groups of children in South Africa. At Kidz Care Trust we remained inspired by his commitment and translate that daily into our work ethos…from the street back onto their feet.”
This year not only marks 30 years after this historic birthday party, but also the 30-year anniversary of the NMCF, and it is necessary to reflect on Mandela Day 2025 how far the country has come with street children’s right to a basic education.
Basic education
Access to a basic education is not only a commitment that Madiba made, but a fundamental right under the South African Constitution and the international treaties the country committed to implement. The latter includes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that South Africa ratified on 16 June 1995, also 30 years ago.
The right to a basic education has multiple dimensions and the implementation of this right by the Government of South Africa as duty bearer is experienced differently by children, depending on where they are and who they are. An example of this is the right to basic education of street children.
Children have rights, and street children have the same rights, without exception. Every street child is entitled to a basic education as provided for under the South African School’s Act, while the Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System (currently under review) makes special provision for such children, as having specific educational needs.
The question we as a society need to ask on Mandela Day 2025 is how street children experience the realisation of the right to a basic education today, after 30 years of commitments by the primary duty bearer – the government.
The sad and concerning reality is that access to basic education is still a chronic challenge faced by the street children, especially, to the disappointment these children, the experience that mainstream schools are neither ready/ willing nor equipped to accommodate street children, notwithstanding advocacy and multiple efforts over more than three decades. Thus, with a history of living and working on the streets, street children still do not benefit from their rights to an education as they should.
Street children
Street children are difficult to appropriately place in schools for several reasons. First of all, early drop out means that their chronological age does not equal their academic age when they re-enter school. Secondly, lack of use of their school-learned skills from when they were in school may not have been utilised for some time – placing them further behind. A further example is that they might find it difficult to adapt to the culture of the school environment.
Kidz Care Trust, an NGO in Bloemfontein, has worked with street children in the city since 1991, and faces the reality of these children not being able to claim their right to and strives towards integrating them back into society. Their experience together with the experiences of the children they serve show that current legislation, policy, and curricula do not provide for the special education needs of street children, not just for those re-entering the school system, but especially while the children still live and work in the streets.
In fact, the reality is that school only generally becomes a reality for such children once they are placed back home or in a child and youth centre.
In light of this, special or inclusive education in one form of another – at least for a while – is sometimes necessary – not because the child has a disability but because their surroundings on the streets have been disabling in an academic respect.
Bridging programmes
Bridging programmes will enable children who have lived or worked on the streets to fully integrate into the school environment. This coincides with the limited availability of skilled teachers to implement an inclusive approach for street children when they re-enter school as one of the steps to rebuild their lives as children and citizens.
Inclusive education and the inclusion of street children when they are ready and want to re-enter the classroom to learn, requires flexibility and adaptability in that classroom, by the teacher in the classroom, so that they feel part of the learning environment and be able to succeed in their learning – an important steppingstone in the process of leaving a life on the streets.
This is often forgotten when street children are admitted to a school.
The excitement on the first day is evident, but the reality of experiences that he or she is not understood, respected, and included in the classroom and school most of the time lead to drop-out – often the second, third or fourth drop-out. Every time this happens, it makes it increasingly difficult to motivate a child to go back to school – not because they are not willing to learn, but largely because they wish to avoid similar negative experiences.
An organisation such as Kidz Care Trust does essential work for this specific group of children, work that other organisations seldomly take on because of the complexity of interventions to protect street children and reintegrate them back into society. Their reality, like for many other similar organisations, is that the demand for the services far exceeds the person power and capacity to change enough lives throughout South Africa.
Let us remind ourselves of the profound challenge that Nelson Mandela gave us as democratic society on 08 May 1995 at the launch of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund:
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than in the way in which it treats its children.”
No child should be left behind. Without intervention, we run the risk of relegating these children to second-class citizens, with it becoming harder and harder to transcend life on the streets and to obtain an education. Let us take forward Mandela’s sentiments and care properly for all our society’s children.
*Kidz Care Trust is a non-governmental organisation that serves the community of Bloemfontein by rendering life-changing services to children under the age of 18 years living and working on the street with the purpose to reunite them with their families and communities. The organisation focuses on preventing children from living and working on the streets through community-based interventions that build resilience and reduce risks., while their interventions with children living and working on the streets of Bloemfontein involve outreach through our street work; a bridging program between the street and integration back into their communities through our drop-in centre; and a structured residential care program at their registered child and youth care centre.
The views of the writers are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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