Beneath the palace-lined streets of St. Petersburg, live 16,000 children and their numbers are growing. Working street children are a new phenomenon in Russia brought on by the collapse of the Soviet system of support. They are only now learning how to cope.

The streets of St. Petersburg are lined with the splendid palaces and buildings of Peter the Great who saw it as a showcase for Russia.

Today, the streets of this icy Baltic port are lined with children like Masha. Her father left, her mother drinks and beats her. So she prefers the street, hustling money any way she can, sleeping in basements and attics to escape the cold. She’s not the only one. See the basement wall, a concrete register of other visitors in the night.

Masha, Masha

Things will change. Someone will help us change our lives.

According to a report from the International Labour Organization, 16,000 children live and work on the streets of St. Petersburg and their numbers are growing. They must beg, scavenge, and prostitute themselves just to survive. The work is dangerous and exploitive. And they are often sent there by their families.

Masha, Masha

Things will change. Someone will help us change our lives.

According to a report from the International Labour Organization, 16,000 children live and work on the streets of St. Petersburg and their numbers are growing. They must beg, scavenge, and prostitute themselves just to survive. The work is dangerous and exploitive. And they are often sent there by their families.

Things will change. Someone will help us change our lives.

According to a report from the International Labour Organization, 16,000 children live and work on the streets of St. Petersburg and their numbers are growing. They must beg, scavenge, and prostitute themselves just to survive. The work is dangerous and exploitive. And they are often sent there by their families.

Natasha

I didn’t know what to do. I sent my children to collect bottles in the street to buy milk for Ninotchka.

Natasha attends a community self-help group sponsored by the ILO where families learn alternatives to sending their children to work.

Working street children are a new phenomenon in Russia. When the Soviet system collapsed, so did the state structures that supported families in need. St. Petersburg is busy renovating for its 300th birthday. But it will take more than repairing the buildings to restore this city.

Alexei Boukharov, ILO/IPEC Manager, St. Petersburg

We are trying to create a safe zone, free from child labour in one particular district. It means in one district we will create a model of effective cooperation between the police, the schools and the local self-government.

The ILO’s IPEC program against child labour is unique since it has the support of unions, employers and politicians to put child labour legislation high on the political agenda.

Ludmilla Verbitskaya, Rector, St. Petersburg University

During my next visit to President Putin’s deputies, I will give the University’s report on this problem. Those in charge must concretely decide what needs to be done and this must be discussed at the federal level.

Russia’s authorities are starting to get the message. President Putin recently visited a program to rehabilitate girls rescued from the street where they are most vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Svetlana

We’ve got a girl living here, she’s maybe 15. She earns money working with men. There’s a lot of children working here. But the youngest one is Sasha. He’s 8. He’s just lives here all the time.

Sasha stokes his fire to keep warm. With help, he may one day ignite his dreams for a better life.