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IFEJANT: advocating for street kids rights

Children and adolescents in Latin America have formed associations to protect their right to decent work. We work with the organizations that support these young people in countries such as Peru. Our primary partner in these efforts is a youth worker and youth training organization named IFEJANT.

IFEJANT promotes child participation by working with young people to enhance their ability to assert their rights – social, political and most recently economic. IFEJANT’s work has focused on the right to work and earn income by working with youth themselves to lobby for legislative reforms that will keep the work of young people visible. Street Kids International has worked with IFEJANT to develop tools that give working kids the ability to improve their work situation by reducing their working hours or shifting out of hazardous work and continuing to study.

Acknowledging the economic “actorship” of young people was a critical step in our collaboration and has influenced how IFEJANT and other partners in Peru work with young people in a more integrated way. More importantly, the collaboration has produced clear examples of how young people can voice their opinions on their economic roles, activities and the need to keep turning to them for how best to help fulfill their rights.

Street kids will continue to need to work – for survival for themselves and their families, to contribute to household income, to pay for their education and to gain the practical skills and experience through work that will increase their ability for economic and social stability as they grow into adulthood.

Child labour and child work are not simple propositions that can be painted with one brush – the needs and motivations for work are as diverse and complex as the kids themselves.