Brussels, 24/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Foundation for Street Children Worldwide (EFSCW) organised a photo exhibition in Brussels on 7 July featuring the work of Dutch photographer Ton Hendricks, who is specialised in portraits of street children throughout the world (South America, Africa, Asia). “The aim of the exhibition is to make the public more aware of the conditions in which the street children, who are among the most vulnerable, live”, Reinhold Müller, EFSCW Director, said, welcoming the broad public interest in the event. “Street children are the barometer of society”, EFSCW President Maartje van Putten, former MEP, commented. For several years, he has been seeking to heighten the awareness of the political world in the rights and needs of children excluded from society, especially street children. Ms van Putten was pleased that the European strategy aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of children contains an “international dimension”, which, she believes, “may simplify the work of organisations working on the ground” (for the Commission's communication on children's rights, which above all provides for an action plan in 2007 to deal with the priority needs of children in developing countries, see EUROPE 9225). “Franco Frattini is the first Commissioner to understand the magnitude of the problem”, Ms van Putten said, deploring the fact that the EU has not enough competence in this matter. She also expressed great concern about the “huge problems” to be settled in Romania and Bulgaria where thousands of children wander the streets, including many Rom children and gypsies. “I find it unfortunate that, the question of street children is never brought up in the membership talks for these two countries”, she concluded.
EFSCW is a Brussels-based NGO that groups 43 organisations throughout the world including 29 in sixteen EU Member States. In addition to its awareness campaign, the network seeks to influence European legislation in favour of children and to facilitate the exchange of information and experience between organisations working directly on such projects on the ground. Although few exact statistics are available on street children in the world, it is believed that there are between 100 million (UNICEF) and 150 million (United Nations). (Website: http: //http://www.enscw.org/ )