The first request of the speaker was to put our wallets or cell phones on the tables; I could notice that many classmates were wondering what the hell is she talking about? After we did it, she asked us to exchange our items with the student next to us which made me really uncomfortable. I don’t let anyone look through my personal stuff but I guess I had to do it in this exercise. Later, the speaker explained to us that the reason she did this exercise was to make us think about feeling that kids who run away from home go through when they are in shelters or in the streets. I found this an interesting exercise and very challenging. Later, she started to ask the class what we thought were the reasons and causes for young kids to run away from home among this causes we said that the reason could be peer pressure, poverty, pregnancy, abused, family conflicts, etc. And some of the consequences of running away can led kids to suicide, murder, drug addiction pregnancy, etc. these facts never crossed my mind, is almost taboo for me since I’m pretty new to the subject of kids running away from home. I would think that many American families live well with their children and protected them from this to happen. But in this information session I learned I was wrong kids run away from home everyday. Later on, the speaker showed us an interesting film where kids were interviewed on the streets about their reason why they run away and how the dealt with the situation. I found this film very interesting and most of it was filmed in Chicago.
The guest speaker from the National Runaway Switchboard shared some important and shocking information. I didn’t have the minimal idea that the percentage of total youth runaway is 57% which includes youth in crisis, homeless, throwaway, suspected missing, etc. What was really surprising to me was that in 2006 youth who call the runway hotline was between 12 yrs old and 21 yrs old. I can’t imagine what is like being 12yrs old and runway from home and living on the streets of a busy and metropolitan city. Another statistic that impacted me was that according to the National Runaway switchboard call data report stated that 72% of people who called was female and males only 28%. I also learned that between 1.6 and 2.8 million of kids run away from home each year. That’s a huge and outrageous number that I find hard to believe since I have never had the experience of knowing any runaway kid in Chicago streets or across the country. I would think that is more likely to happen in 3dr world countries which I have experience. But I guess it happens more often here in the U.S. overall this was a good information session that I’m sure it created awareness in the class and myself.
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