Nobody's children: Who is responsible in the State?

Santo Domingo.- Children and adolescents living on the streets are in most cases evidence of parental irresponsibility and absence. They are faces marked by abandonment, social indifference, lack of love, care, and protection. Children of nobody, as if they were born without any rights.

Behind each of them is a broken story: But when the family environment fails, who picks up the pieces? In whose hands does that boy or girl remain? Where does the State's responsibility begin and end? Misinformation or lack of knowledge of the roles of State entities leads to pointing to a single person responsible for responding to this problem: The National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani), when in reality, to get a minor off the streets, various actors intervene without whom this entity cannot do much. The National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani) has been developing since 2022 in coordination with the Children and Adolescents Cabinet, led by First Lady Raquel Arbaje, and other entities, the "Intervention Program for Children and Adolescents in Street Situations, Mobility and Worst Forms of Child Labor" with which they intervene in this vulnerable segment of the population. Regarding this, Felin Hernández, head of the Protection and Restitution of Rights division of Conani, said that in various “Protection Days” in the National District and Boca Chica they have assisted around 1,045 children to date. "This program has a route and a protocol for the approach, identification, and monitoring of children and adolescents living on the streets, coordinated with other institutions and state security institutions, such as Politur, in the case of tourist areas, and the Attorney General's Office with the Children and Adolescents Prosecutor's Office (NNA), coordinated by Conani as the governing body," explains Hernández to De Ultimo Minuto. The official highlights that these minors are identified through permanent exploratory tours, through reports from the population and the identification of other institutions that work for the National Protection System.

Factors Detected by CONANI

In 2024, Through the Operational Technical Unit (UTO), CONANI managed to assist a total of 353 children and adolescents in Protection Days. Of these, 31% were assisted on avenues, 20% in the Colonial Zone, 6% in plazas, and 4% by Politur.

According to Felin, from Conani they have been able to identify multiple factors causing this problem, among which stand out: poverty, parental neglect, abandonment and a pending task of the State which is access to basic services. "It's multidimensional, you're going to see cases of these children who may meet one of these characteristics or all of them, because we have many cases where there is extreme poverty, where there is inattention, parental neglect, even abuse. It is an excessively vulnerable population with which we work from Conani with great seriousness and a well-defined policy," says Hernández.

What is CONANI's protocol for assisting these children?

CONANI has Transitional Homes, first-reception centers for these children or adolescents in situations of personal, family, or social risk, and whose environment does not guarantee their safety. To enter a foster home, the child or adolescent must be having their rights violated, be in a situation of risk, be abandoned, or have been voluntarily surrendered by their biological parents to CONANI. All of them with a protection order issued by the competent court, except in cases of voluntary surrender. In 2024 alone, 653 children and adolescents entered the Foster Homes, of these 202 were due to being on the streets. Children and adolescents living on the streets, after being identified in the Protection Days, must go through a process to determine if they meet the conditions to enter a temporary shelter. It begins with contact with a family reference in whom they can be reintegrated. Then, a multidisciplinary technical team from Conani evaluates the minor's health situation and other psychosocial factors. "A child who is on the street is almost certainly out of school and with this diagnosis, an individual intervention plan is created where each of these risk indicators is identified, accompaniment and follow-up is given through social workers who periodically visit the family, giving follow-up", Felin points out.

According to the data, the success rate with the program is high. The statistics for the year 2024 say that 164 children and adolescents out of the 353 addressed in the protection days were reunified with their families, however, Felin highlights that it is a permanent systematic process of work with the child and the family that does not always end with a positive result. "When I approach a boy or girl in street conditions, it doesn't mean that with a magic wand we decide that it's a before and after. We have had cases that we have identified in a public space and when we return we find them again because it is an installed process that we have to dismantle with hard work with other allied institutions, but in the vast majority of cases we have had very positive results," he added. Hernández did not rule out in his speech the existence of criminal structures that take advantage of these children and adolescents. "Organized crime does not sleep and lives by identifying vulnerable people to exploit and there are even networks behind these children to put them to beg and sell controlled substances, it is not for decoration that we have the prosecution in the operational technical unit and the Central Directorate of Investigation (Dicrim)", he stated.

Challenges Faced by Conani

Facing the reality of childhood on the streets is not an easy task, but it is an ethical and social obligation. Addressing this problem requires not only sensitivity and commitment, but also comprehensive and sustained public policies, so there are latent challenges that must be faced. One of the main challenges is the visibility of the problem. In many societies, these children are ignored or stigmatized, which hinders their inclusion in social protection systems. Breaking with collective indifference and promoting a humanizing perspective is the first step to generate effective solutions. “At first, the challenge is the cultural dismantling of the normalization of children and adolescents in street conditions. What is seen are the children in public spaces, but behind that there are a series of factors. Second, the articulation as a national protection system, as a society, is a problem for everyone, social entities, mayors and the population in general. Third, we could say that it is about resources”, indicates Felin. Finally, it highlights that another challenge is the extension of the program to all provinces of the country since it is currently only implemented in Santo Domingo and recently in Santiago. "We are implementing the program in prioritized territories, it is a progressive process due to the high cost of the program and we are reviewing the most appropriate way to be able to implement it nationwide," says Felin. The State's responsibility towards children in street conditions is non-delegable. As a guarantor of fundamental rights, it must ensure that all minors have the necessary conditions for their integral development, regardless of their origin, socioeconomic situation, or family context. It is not enough to declare rights and initiatives on paper: they must be translated into concrete actions, adequate resources, and sustained political will.