REPEAT RUNAWAYS
Isabelle’s case is not isolated.
Social service agencies say they are seeing more youths leaving home – sometimes repeatedly, and for longer stretches.
Care Corner Singapore, which engages about 1,800 youths, has seen about one such case every two months in the past year. Previously, it handled up to four cases a year.
At PPIS Family Service Centre, about 20 such cases have been seen each year over the past two years.
In one extreme case, a youth ran away and returned home about 50 to 60 times.
Some youths are even turning to people they barely know for help.
“It might also be seen as a transactional kind of an exchange where they are provided shelter, roof over their heads, in exchange for other things. Sometimes it’s to the point that it’s in exchange for sexual kind of services,” said Mr Muhammad Zahin Saini, a senior social worker at PPIS.
Others move from place to place, relying on their social networks.
“If they have a wide social network, it means that they can couch surf quite a bit,” said Ms Flora Tan, lead social worker at Care Corner.
“Monday to Wednesday, it’s at Jurong, and then Thursday to Friday, they are somewhere in the East. It’s just a matter of being able to move from place to place and they’re increasingly mobile,” she added.
Family conflict remains a key reason why youths run away, alongside pressures from school or social media.
“In the past few years, we do see an increasing rise in cases of family violence … it’s a rather complex kind of issue that can’t really be resolved within a short span of time,” said Mr Zahin.
“We do see during these periods whereby the youth would actually resume back their behaviour of running away from home,” he added.
Ms Leela Samy, deputy head of the sports, arts and youth integrated team at the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH), said that there has been an increase in distress among youths over the past two years.
“They are very vulnerable to academic stressors, bullying, family conflicts … even issues with identity, belonging and even isolation,” she added.
“That’s when they feel that they want to have temporary relief and leave their homes.”
ONLINE NETWORKS STEP IN
When youths go missing, word often spreads quickly online.
Content creator Kao Rong Sheng, better known by his social media handle RunnerKao, has become part of an informal network helping to amplify such cases.
Since last year, the former social worker has posted appeals for about 10 missing youths. The youngest was 13.