Street children should be helped to live as humans, not abused

As one enters one of the African cities, he or she will come across groups of the youth living a miserable life. Most of them are dirty, wearing rags, some with open sores and some suffering from fractured bones in their hands or legs.

Some of these children will be begging, some will be pulling carts and some will be loading or unloading trucks. Some children will be stranded, with nothing to do, just watching the way life is going in the streets. Some will be sleeping on verandas of some buildings or pavements. Most of these groups fall under the category called ‘street children.’

These children have been a centre of attention to some individuals and organisations. Some people and some organisations have already come in to find a way forward for these children and offer help to them. For instance, some people have adopted some street children, taking them into their homes and caring them as their children. In their homes, they send them to school, pay for their school fees, teach them proper values and morals and assist them to grow with a sense of hope, trust, purpose and courage. Some of these adopted children have succeeded in their lives leading them to proper growth and realisation of their potential.

Further, some individuals and organisations have established centres to care for street children and disadvantaged children. These centres offer to children shelter, food and clothes. The staff of some centres, apart from sending these children to school and look for means to pay for their fees, dedicate their time also to teach them proper manners and rehabilitate addicted and abused children.

In fact, some centres for street children become new families to these children that provide them with a community of people to socialise, enjoy and change their lives. Eventually, some of these children receive proper direction to tap their energies, talents, wishes, aspirations, dreams and desires and direct them towards full realisation of their potential and grow as responsible and loving citizens.

Nevertheless, we should also not forget contributions from some volunteers in the streets, who interact daily with these children. These are those, who sacrifice their time and funds to send some of these children to hospital, especially, when they are injured or fall sick, buy for them food and clothes and give them some other benefits. Thus, such people play a great role in the lives of these children and make them feel that they are also part of the human family.

In addition, there are some people, who interact fraternally with them, respect them and encourage them. These also relieve them of bad thoughts they have in their minds. This brings happiness to these children. This is how some people in society have been assisting these children and disadvantaged people in society.

However, if the majority of us try to sit down and analyse donations we have so far rendered to street children, there is a lot to be ashamed of. This is because to the majority of us, our first greatest donation to street children are our empty bottles collected after drinking water or some soft drinks in restaurants and celebrations. Some of us normally assume that these bottles will be collected mostly by street children, sell them and get some money. Hence, we become satisfied to see them collect these bottles and think that we are contributing to their lives. The question is: is it possible for them to define their future through these empty bottles?

An empty bottle doesn’t offer one a sense of purpose, trust or hope. Can they extract water or food from empty bottles? I think, empty bottles will never define the future of these children. Empty bottles will never give to us children with defined purpose and end. We should stop thinking that the bottles or scraps we see them collecting will assist them to define their future. Those of us with this mentality should do stop it. Whenever we see them collecting bottles, we should not be satisfied or be envious, thinking that they are on the right track.

Another type of donation we normally offer to street children that we need to critically analyse is a list of expired drinks and foodstuffs such as rice, fruits and various unsuitable foodstuffs. These are the things some people throw into bins or dump pits. They are dumped because someone judges them unfit for human consumption. Things we dump in our bins are called garbage because they are no longer suitable for us. Unfortunately, some street children collect from these bins and feast on them. Ultimately, they end up suffering from cholera, typhoid and amoebic dysentery. This is the way some of these children survive on our wastes. It is pitiful to hear that some people feast on our wastes.

This is because wastes dumped by human beings are to be consumed by maggots, worms or some other animals such as chicken, rats and mice and not human beings. Human beings are creatures with dignity and should not be allowed to feed on wastes dumped by other human beings. It is always not easy for people to have defined future and achieve self-realisation if they will continually be left to feast on dumped foodstuffs.

I understand the difficulty of solving this crisis, but I suggest that we as members of society should open wide our eyes and be moved with mercy and compassion and together see the way we can solve this misery of some people feasting on dumped foodstuffs. I think that everyone of us should establish his own basket of Charity and deposit his sacrifices there for the disadvantaged people. This should be done by everyone of us; this should not be a job of a specific group or type of people. After this, we should also plan the way our charity should reach these people.

I think that, where every one of us successfully manages to implement this, we will at least reduce this tendency of some people feasting on wastes dumped by others. This is also the way we can assist these disadvantaged people to define their future and live as human beings. Tolerating to see them feast on our wastes is actually to invite diseases to attack them and this will ruin their future and humanity.

Verbal abuse is “the other donation” to street children. It is common to find street children being verbally abused with a lot of insults. Sometimes they are slapped or kicked. I understand that in some instances, street children are very hard and dangerous and can put our lives and properties in danger. But we also need to be critical and compassionate with the way some of us abuse them verbally or physically. Sometimes you will come across street children being insulted or mistreated because of what they are.

They are insulted by drivers, conductors and vendors. In my view, this is not the proper way to deal with these children. This approach scandalises them and because many of them are still young and lack someone to console or teach them morality, they develop negative attitudes towards society and they may end up perceiving everyone in society as an enemy. We have to be more generous and merciful, when dealing with these children. We should not tolerate to see them being abused or mistreated. Where we cannot help them, we should refrain from verbal abuse.

The fact is that, at times, some of these children do some good jobs in town. We cannot deny that some street boys and disadvantaged people in towns direct us, when we are lost, wash our cars, protect our properties, carry our bags, load and unload our trucks and give help during accidents.

Thus, at times the presence of these children and disadvantaged people in town make our life more secure. But in some instances, we do not consider or appreciate them. In my opinion, I see that we should stop this behaviour and if some of us cannot assist such disadvantaged people, we should at least restrain from insulting or abusing them. I think this will bring more relief to them.

Again, we know that the majority of the street children and disadvantaged people spend most of their time in the streets. They have got their zones, where they gather and enjoy their rest. However, it is shameful to tell the way some of us have encroached these areas and made them unsafe. This is because we have contaminated them, littered them with plastic bags and dirty water. Some of us have made them dumping sites.

We have contaminated even some water sources, which could have helped them to quench their thirst or wash their clothes. The air is also polluted with our vehicles and industries. Eventually, they end up suffering from various diseases. This is the way our irresponsible behaviour is harming street children and many disadvantaged people. So, every one of us should reflect the way his actions have harmed disadvantaged people and with charity, kindness and compassion see the way to mitigate them.

Again, it is important to understand that most of the street children do not have a good relationship with spiritual or religious bodies. They are not close to spiritual leaders. Thus, the majority of them do not attend services in houses of worship. The majority do not receive any spiritual assistance to correct their morality and establish their relationship with God. Some of the children move to towns at a very tender age. At this time, they still lack basic religious teaching. To many Africans, houses of worship are very important.

This is because most of the sermons offered during services can make one change his perspective about life to better. They can make one feel that he is not abandoned, but still valuable in society. Some sermons given in the houses of worship offer great knowledge concerning the economy and morality and thus they provide one with the knowledge on the way to lead his life economically and socially.

In addition, houses of worship provide one with a community of people to socialise, feel happy and connected. Unfortunately, most of these children and disadvantaged people are not connected to the houses of worship and so they fall short of all these advantages.

Thus, I think religious leaders should not sideline them, but take a caring or pastoral approach towards these people. Where they have forgotten them, they should from now approach and encourage them to attend services in the houses of worship.

In this, they will acquire better perspectives about life and they will also connect themselves with a community of believers that will assist them to define their future and realise their potential.

The author is based in Morogoro.He can be reached at [email protected]