 | | INCLUSION
"Why are there more people living on the streets?"
Under The Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children have a right to be a part of society and to voice their concerns about the issues that affect them. In turn, governments worldwide should encourage the provision of cultural, artistic and sporting events to help integrate children into society.
Article 31 says governments should, "recognise the right of a child... to engage in play and recreational activities..."
For nearly two decades, the island of Sri Lanka has been wracked by a civil war between the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have asked for a separate Tamil state in the north and east of the island.
During this period, vast numbers of people have been exposed to violence and trauma. Many are children. Some of them have been recruited as fighters while others have been either killed or severely disabled during the continued warfare.
Children have lost their homes, their families and their security. Kalidasan, a boy from Sri Lanka, is homeless. So are his parents. In addition, his father has a drink problem.
In this report for A World for Children, Kalidasan asks Sunil Gamaghe, who works for PEACE, a non-governmental organisation that aims to protect children, about his family's right to a home.
In his conversation, he asks Sunil why there are more people living on the streets?" Does he have a chance of becoming a sportsman, and can anything at all be done to help his father overcome his alcoholism? | |  Listen to Kalidasan and Sunil's story in Sinhala | | 
I am Sunil Gamaghe, working for a Non Governmental Organisation named PEACE [Protect Environment And Children Everywhere]. The other branch of our organisation is in Bangkok, Thailand, named as ECP PAT [End Child Prostitution, Pornography And Trafficking for sexual purposes.]
Sri Lanka has signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and, according to that, the government and NGOs [Non-Government Organisations] are bound to help a person like you.
There are hundreds of children who are affected by this in Sri Lanka as well as in other third world countries.
Neither the government nor NGO's are in a position to provide for all the needs of street children but I would like to say that a solution should be found for people like you.
I accept that there is an increase of the street children. There are many reasons for this.
Why do these children come to the streets? Because their parents can not look after them.
Why are parents not able to look after their children? Because they are not economically well off.
Why are they poor? They do not know how to organise their lives. For this, there are political, economical and social reasons.
I think there are no organisations which can ask parents why they are [living] like this. I think we are all responsible for the situation, but there aren't any government or non-governmental organisations that could tackle these problems.
You could become a player, musician or a doctor and that is your right. But to achieve any of these, you're going to need courage, energy and luck. If you have all these you could become anybody you want. You can become not only a volleyball player but anybody. 
In his life as a street child, Kalidasan has experienced bullying. He has noticed that even when he wants to play with others, he is discriminated against. He asks Sunil for explanations in his attempt to understand why he has been singled out as a target.
I feel very sorry that you have to ask me [why other people are bullying you]. There may be lots of reasons. I would like to tell you that nobody has the right to bully anybody.
Children have their own rights and nobody should offend those rights, but I have seen many children discriminated against because of their colour and race, and other factors. We are trying wholeheartedly to stop these things happening.
I am very sad to hear you ask this question [about discrimination], but this situation prevails everywhere. I cannot give you an answer but I would like to say that such issues should not take place.
There is something you could try: you could go and tell your problem to a person who cares about you.
For people like your father, we have a counselling process. We bring people like him along with their families and talk to them very positively and ask them the reason for their drinking. When we find out the reason, then we help them to get themselves out of their situation. | | | Listen to Kalidasan and Sunil's story in Sinhala | | |  |  |
 The war in Sri Lanka is based on ethnic tensions. Sri Lanka has a mixed Tamil minority (roughly 18% of the population) concentrated in the northern and eastern parts of the island and Buddhist Sinhalese majority (74%) in the south west.
According to a report by UNICEF, "Since 1990, the war has taken the lives of at least 60,000 people. Over one million people have been displaced and at least 200,000 have fled to India."
Children and their well-being, the report adds, have been severely affected by the civil war, "with tens of thousands killed, orphaned, displaced from their homes or traumatised. Children, in particular, have suffered from a deterioration in education and health care."
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