“People are abused because they are too young and they’ve got no voice.
You know when you’re lonely and you’ve got nobody to talk to and nobody seems to care about your situation, or even ask what you’re going through. It’s whereby people don’t pay attention to the street children, to their needs. “
Aliysha* and her twin sister left home in Zimbabwe to get away from a physically abusive step-father who also kept them from going to school. They ran away to a nearby town, but had to eat food from bins and sleep in bushes. She spent six months working for a woman who then refused to pay her.
Her sister eventually left for South Africa to find work and they lost contact. In 2008 Aliysha decided to try to reunite with her sister in South Africa. She was 17.
On the way she was sexually assaulted by knifepoint by a man who offered her help with transportation.
She eventually made it to Cape Town, but encountered xenophobia there.
Aliysha says:
“I know a Zimbabwean there whose house was burnt down because they did not want him here. People call us cockroaches. It is a dangerous place to be a child alone.”
Aliysha eventually found help at a Save the Children supported children’s centre in Johannesburg. She’s thankful for the care and attention she has received at the centre and says it has helped to heal her. She is now documented and has a job at a local charity shop. She also supports other children at the centre.
E’ stata rinnovata oggi la convenzione con la quale l’organizzazione si impegna a fornire, a titolo gratuito, fino al 31 dicembre 2022, un’adeguata assistenza, protezione e orientamento informativo e legale in favore dei minori stranieri che giungono in Italia non accompagnati e quelli parte di un nucleo familiare. L’accordo originario era stato stipulato il 5 dicembre 2019.
L’organizzazione si è resa disponibile, nello spirito di collaborazione e dialogo instaurato con l’amministrazione dell’Interno, a proseguire l’attività per il 2022. Save the Children potrà fornire informazioni e immediato sostegno, orientamento legale, mediazione culturale nonché supporto psico-sociale ai minori, già dalle prime fasi del loro arrivo in Italia, nonché supporto per l’individuazione dei casi più vulnerabili.
