What would happen if a six-year-old girl was seen left alone in a city or a restaurant?
This video shows that she would be cared for, caressed and welcomed - but only if she’s well-dressed. UNICEF conducted a social experiment, filming a six-year-old alone in the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia. The public's response depended on the girl’s appearance.
When Anano, the video's six-year-old child actor, was dressed up in pretty clothes with a neat hairdo and left alone in the streets, she was warmly welcomed. People came up to her, talked to her, stroked her arm and asked if she was lost.
Then, Anano’s appearance changed. The clothes became ragged and her face was made dirty. She looked like she was homeless.
Homeless-looking Anano provoked entirely different reactions. People walked past her, barely looking at her. Nobody stopped to ask if she was lost.
In a restaurant, the well-dressed little girl in a ballerina bun was greeted with smiles, hugs and strokes on the cheek. When she returned to the same restaurant looking homeless, the approach to her changed drastically. People moved their belongings away from her, pushed her away and asked her to be removed from the restaurant.
She ran away from the restaurant with tears in her eyes. The experiment had to be stopped because Anano got so upset at the way people treated her.
The experiment was a part of UNICEF's #FightUnfair campaign to raise awareness about stigma against children living and working on the streets.
The producers believed the video’s slogan, 'change starts when you choose to care', would make people think about their own attitudes towards children they see in the streets every day.
According to UNICEF Georgia, children living and working on the streets in Georgia often lack proper identification, leaving without access to education, health and other social services.
"Often they are unregistered and subject to various forms of violence. Instability and inappropriate living conditions make these children among the most vulnerable groups of society,” UNICEF Georgia said.
Last year, with the support of UNICEF and other non-governmental organisations, Georgia established a state mechanism to protect the rights of children working and living on the streets and to ensure they had access to social services, like day-care centres. Psychologists, social workers and mobile team members worked with the children to include them into child protection services like foster care and small group homes.
The project has so far changed the lives of more than 380 children, according to UNICEF Georgia.