malaysia-street kids

malaysia: protecting at-risk kids

In Malaysia’s cities, the rights of the marginalized child are far from recognized or upheld. These children are either stateless, refugees, and/or street kids.

It has been estimated that there may be as many as half a million children between the ages of 6 and 18 who roam the streets every night. With parents working all hours of the night to provide income for their families, these children are left to their own devices, and may turn to the streets to participate in the economic security of the family or to find social security in the company of friends. In the red light district of Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur, many of these kids are at risk of sexual abuse, imprisonment and deportation, and human trafficking.

Some are illegal immigrants from Indonesia and the Philippines, whose families have fled to Malaysia in search of better economic opportunities, but more are Malaysians without papers: children born out of wedlock are still not recognized as citizens. Others are refugees from Myanmar’s ongoing genocide and conflict, not recognized as asylum-seekers by the Malaysian government. Without adequate legal protection, these youth are all too often completely neglected by government institutions and programs.

These youth face a host of social issues including violence, drug abuse, poverty, and sexual abuse, and are continually failed by a lack of education, social support, and a justice system that often even perpetuates these cycles of abuse. Most live in fear everyday for their security.

The Paradigm Shift Project’s fourth film, and the project for which we currently seek support, concerns the hardship endured by these street youth in urban Malaysia and the measures currently being taken to protect them. Informed by local non-profit organizations Protect and Save the Children Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (P.S. the Children), Nur Salam, and the work of Belle and her committed team with refugee children, this project seeks to educate the public on the urgent need for international support in an increasingly pressing situation affecting the lives of millions of youth today on the streets of cities throughout the global south.

Field research, including the creation of a documentary film, is now ongoing, and is scheduled for completion in the winter of 2009. An accompanying curricula guide will be written upon completion of the film.

malaysia | protecting at-risk kids