I watched the TV program "If the world were a village of 100 people, Part 4" today.
It
featured 3 children this time. One of them was a 9-year-old boy who was
a street children in Ukraine. He escaped from his father's violence. He
has HIV because of his father who is a drug addict.
He asked a
Japanese reporter if she was hungry and eats food he had. He had food...
probably it was not food for Japanese. And it was today's first food
for him. But he considered her who probably has never have trouble
eating. He also was worried about his younger sister who was in an
orphanage. He said he hoped his sister didn't spend life like him and
want her to go to school and spend normal life, he also wanted to go to
school. I couldn't stop crying.
He is always running away from
police. If he is taken into protective custody by police, he will be
taken to the orphanage, and end up with going back to home where violent
father is in. TV program staff tried to talk him into going hospital
but he adamantly refused to do.
There are many street children
who escaped from their family's violence. They have only 2 choices,
being street children or living with violent family? Why country doesn't
protect them?
There are many children who are under harsh
situation. Many associations act for helping them. But I think the root
of the whole problem is "country (government)". Each country must take
appropriate policies to resolve this problem.
In Japan, there are
no street children, no child labor, every child can go to school...
although until about 60 years ago, many poor children couldn't go to
school and did heavy work.
Why did Japan could make present good, and rare situations?
Japanese
TV sometimes airs the program like this. And then? Is that all? For
what purpose did they air those? Most Japanese who watched the program
feel "poor thing!". That's all.
Japan (including me) should DO something.
