A new campaign is aiming to help street children by teaching them art and acting, writes Sarah Eissa "Manadeel waraa are the disposable paper tissues sometimes sold by street children. But the way the street children are treated indicates that for some people they are just as disposable," a new campaign to help Egypt's street children entitled "Manadeel Waraa" says on its website. The new campaign aims to help all children, not just street children, but the idea came, explains Alia Mossallam, a children's rights activist, after the clashes outside the cabinet office in Cairo and the Port Said stadium massacre, during which some 150 children under 18 years of age were arrested. Egypt already has a law that protects street children, Law 126/2008, articles 112, 116 and 119, and this identifies street children as being vulnerable to particular dangers and sets out procedures for dealing with them. However, this law is not always observed in practice, Mossallam says, and children have in the past been "arrested for begging and then placed in cells with hardened criminals, opening them up to the possibility of abuse." However, in addition to the new campaign's attempts to activate existing laws, perhaps its most striking contribution is its use of art and acting instruction as ways to help people to understand the children's point of view and to help the children to express themselves. One of the first results of this part of the campaign has been an art exhibition, Kuna fi al-Midan, or "we were all in the Square", which featured work done by street children bearing witness to the 25 January Revolution. Some of the materials on show in the exhibition are for sale, with the proceeds going to benefit the street children. "They are very talented, and we would like to help them develop their talents, such that they could even make a living from their work," Mossallam said. Hussein, 13, one of the children enrolled in the scheme, said that he would like to be an artist when he grows up. His drawings record the violent scenes he has experienced, notably when he was arrested in the Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes. "They were hitting us, and we were hitting them back," he says. Another street child, Marwan Sami, 17, explains one of his drawings by pointing to "the revolutionaries on 28 January and the Central Security forces attacking them". He draws attention to prominent revolutionary Ahmed Harara who lost his eyes in the revolution. "Anyone would love to give him his eyes to help him," Sami says. A caption on one of the drawings reads, "thugs beating revolutionaries and throwing Molotov cocktails, with cats." "No one would notice the street cats except the children, since they live on the streets with them," commented Gihan Hassan, the owner of a tourist company. Maha Maamoun, programme coordinator at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre (HMLC), said that the drawings and paintings were very expressive, adding that the HMLC was supporting the campaign by offering legal support. The children are also expressing themselves through acting, and they write the plays they perform themselves, says director Gamal Sedki. These plays portray what first drove the children onto the streets, and the sufferings they have experienced since, he says. While the idea at first was simply to interact with the children through acting and to help them reintegrate into society, later the idea of doing a play emerged. At first, some of the children used just to watch, having trouble speaking up and expressing themselves. But later they became more involved. "At the beginning, I saw the whole thing as a bit of a joke. But then I became more serious and started to get really into it," said one 17-year-old. "In the play we have written we show the lives we lead, and we express our desires for change." Sedki had worked with 200 children in the workshop, but only a group of them went on to participate in the play. Some of them have limited talent, while others are amazingly talented, he says. "Some of the girls who didn't participate in the play have especially amazing talent. They should really have professional training," he adds. In putting on the acting workshops and developing the play, the facilitators faced many problems, including trying to deal with the children as simply "normal kids and teenagers". However, these young people have been deprived of affection, and they are used to facing very tough situations on the streets. As a result, they can be emotionally disturbed, and they can use violence to communicate. To deal with such problems, Sedki aimed to build up confidence in the children, though this was sometimes difficult, as he explains. "You can work with them for six months without ever getting to know their real names. You have to work hard to get their trust. They don't trust people easily, because they live in a society that has mistreated them." "Nothing makes me happy, and everything upsets me. If a guy does a good deed, I know there will be a disaster coming soon afterwards," said one child. However, once some degree of trust has been developed, then the acting work can start. "At first, the crew were afraid to work with the children, but then they started to notice changes in them, and things became easier all round," he says. According to Mossallam, in order to continue their work members of the group need greater public support, and one thing the public can do to help is to report abuse of street children. The group has a hotline offering legal support for arrested children, and this can also be used to report abuses. It intends to lobby the next president of Egypt in order to gain support for its work. According to social worker Fekri Osman, many people are not aware of the problems faced by street children, often preferring to see them as criminals. Yet, due to the hardships they face, many of the children suffer from psychological disorders. They also face health problems and dangers from other people living in the streets. These problems can cause anxiety, fear, and hostility toward society. During the Abbasiya clashes in Cairo, the group issued a statement expressing its concern at the failure of state bodies to protect street children since the beginning of the revolution. Many children caught up in the violence have been sent for trial before military tribunals, and others have been injured. The campaign would like to see the rapid restoration of the National Council of Motherhood and Childhood as the official entity responsible for the protection of children, making it a subsidiary of the cabinet rather than part of the ministry of health. Priyanka Motaparthy, a children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US NGO, said that at least 43 children, under 18 years of age, had been sentenced to prison terms by military tribunals since the Revolution. No one tells their family about the case, and the street children are liable to be arrested during protests or sit-ins, and they could be kept in custody with adults, which is illegal under Egyptian law, she said. Lawyer Ahmed Meselhi of the Front to Defend Egypt's Protesters who is also legal counsel for the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights said that international law and Egyptian law No. 126 of 2008 made it illegal to handcuff children while they were under arrest. However, sometimes two children are held together in one pair of handcuffs in violation of the law. Concluding her comments on the aims of the group, Mossallam said that what was uppermost in the minds of everyone involved in the campaign was to treat the children as children, and not as criminals to be sent for trial.
