They live in shabby places, eating what they find around but with dreams that one day they will sleep in a big mansion and eat good food. They don’t know who will come to their rescue and make their dreams come true as they feel isolated.
Should we let these children in the streets?
Living in the streets imposes a great danger to them. At times, they are raped, sodomized, forced to take drugs or cigarettes and are forced to carry heavy goods and many things that put their lives at risk. Little by little their behaviour too starts to change and they become a big threat to our society.
They ask anyone they meet “tithandizeni bwana” (help us boss) so that they can buy food to eat at home. Some of these kids are under age, with brothers and sisters, and living with a single parent.
They are in the street because of family problems like marriage separation, fights between parents which instill fear in their life.. It is ironic that although some of these children’s parents have small scale businesses, the begging on the streets constitutes an important source of income to their families due to pettiness of their parents’ businesses.
“Amasiki” is what they are called meaning Street kids. As the population of these kids in our cities continues to increase, it seems there are only few people or organizations that are seriously concerned about these kids.
These kids also want to have a better life like all the children living in nice houses, going to a good school, wearing nice clothes, sleeping on a comfortable bed, eating nice meals, and the like.
Questions remain: What do we think when we see them in the streets? How could we feel if our own children were in the streets begging?