Usually I am full of praise for the high and increasing quality of health journalism in Myanmar. The Myanmar Times is becoming a leading source of news and analysis. This article is an exception.
Tobacco, glue, betel, and alcohol are not illegal substances. Even if they were, there is nothing in the article to show that over half of 'street children' used them. The editor who composed the headline could have counted.
The unfortunate term "street children eradication" also appears in the article. Do they still shoot dogs in Yangon?
Jamie
BTW, where is the information about the health needs of street children? Or were questions not asked about health?
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Most Mandalay street children use illegal substances: survey
Phyo Wai Kyaw
Myanmar Times
Monday, 04 July 2016
Most of the street children in Mandalay are taking some kind of illicit substance, according to a new survey from the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in Mandalay.
The survey, which included 120 children, found that 75 percent of kids who chose to answer questions about substances that are illegal for minors, or illegal altogether, said they used them.
Nearly one-quarter of the respondents, whose ages ranged from 12 to 18, said they smoked cigarettes, while 15pc said they sniffed glue. Another 15pc said they chewed betel, 5pc said they drank alcohol and 5pc said they had taken methamphetamine pills.
The kids said was easy for them to buy these kinds of substances on the streets where they live. Nearly all of the 66 male respondents said they used some kind of prohibited substance, while 20pc of the 54 female respondents said they did. Only 12pc of those who took the survey declined to answer questions about narcotics.
The children who took the survey were found living in places like markets, railway stations, harbours along the Ayeyarwady River and under bridges in six townships in Mandalay.
The goal of the study was to collect data about the children so service providers can more effectively help the respondents and prevent more children from winding up on the street, said Daw Nan Mauk Sai, chief officer of the Mandalay DSW.
“The main reason why children live on the street is because their family’s income is not good enough and they live in poverty,” she said. “It’s a big problem to be solved.”
Officials from the DSW, Mandalay City Development Committee, the Department of Immigration, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the police force and other related departments discussed the data and possible solutions at a street children eradication workshop last week.
“Now is the time to draw up a plan for the street children,” said U Kyaw Win, the Mandalay Region director of the DSW. “This is a very complicated problem that people have been trying to solve since the Child Law was enacted [in 1993].”
Translation by San Layy
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/mandalay-upper-myanmar/21180-most-mandalay-street-children-use-illegal-substances-survey.html
