Street to School
Recognising that every child has the right to fulfil their potential.
Aviva’s Street to School programmes around the world recognise that every child living and working on the street has the right to fulfil their potential. We will champion the needs of street children in the communities in which we live and work.
Our customers take out policies to look after themselves and their families but sadly many street children often have no-one to protect and care for them in the same way.
We know we can’t help all the world’s street children but we want to help as many as we can. Life on the street without parental care or adult supervision is tough — these children are highly vulnerable. They are exposed to health risks, are often victims of abuse, exploitation and violence. These children are easy targets and can feel lost and let down by society.
What are we going to do?
We’re forming partnerships with leading charities and experts whose work focuses on meeting the needs of children living and working on the streets. Aviva’s Street to School programme will support initiatives that help and encourage these children back into school or training programmes.
We’ll help our partners raise awareness about the plight of street children and advocate the right of every child to fulfil their potential.
Over the next five years Aviva’s businesses will roll out Street to School programmes in their local communities. We’re committed to investing at least 50% of our global charitable donations budget to develop these activities. Some of our new projects are outlined below.
Raising the profile of street children
To become a champion for street children, we are supporting the Consortium for Street Children (CSC) www.streetchildren.org.uk. The CSC is the leading international member-based network dedicated to promoting, advocating and campaigning for the rights of street children globally.
Our programmes
India
India has the largest number of street children in the world. We’ve partnered with CRY (Child Rights and You) and Save the Children in India to help over 50,000 street children get access to education and training by 2012. In the first year, with Aviva’s support these charities will be reaching out to 20,000 children across nine projects in five states.
For the very young children the focus will be on preventing slum children from ending up on the streets through providing early years care and education. We’ll also be supporting programmes that target older children who are actually living on the streets and have missed out on education altogether. These young people will be offered schooling or more vocational-style training opportunities. We’ll also work with parents to ensure they are educated about the importance of health, hygiene, childhood care and education.
Turkey
Urban migration, poverty and unemployment have all contributed to the increasing number of children living and working on the streets in Turkey. To help street children in Istanbul, we’re supporting programmes delivered by SHÇEK, Turkey’s Social Services and Child Protection agency.
With Aviva’s help, SHÇEK can extend its support to Istanbul’s street children by providing additional mobile teams which include social workers, psychologists and teachers, who provide around the clock support for young people on the streets. SHÇEK aims to help reunite children with their families or provide shelter, rehabilitation and educational programmes through 11 centres and homes across the city. SHÇEK also provides guidance and counselling services to the families of street children.
United Kingdom
Every year in the UK, over 100,000 children under the age of sixteen run away from home. Many of them have no alternative but to live their lives on the street. To help these young people, Aviva has chosen Railway Children as their charity partner. New research from Railway Children called “Off the Radar” has explored the experiences and realities for children and young people who are spending the majority of their time on the streets.
In response to this research Aviva will support Railway Children’s ambition to “make a long-term sustainable difference to children alone and at risk on UK streets”. This will be achieved through supporting best practice projects which not only meet the immediate needs of children already living on the streets, but will also focus on the benefits of early intervention and prevention programmes in schools which are supported by the UK’s Department for Schools, Children and Families (DSCF).