I put my head on my pillow and my thought dazed out to the children who spent three months of a severe cold winter weather with no blanket nor proper bed to sleep on.
Further into thought I pictured a pale child lying on some old boxes in a creepy corner with no blanket to shield it from the cold weather sweeping by. I hear the sounds of a strong cold wind coming from the window and wonder where the mothers of these children are.
More so, I wonder what has happened to the old proverb that it takes a whole village to raise a child. Are these children in the streets not African children where all children belonged to a home irrespective of their descent?
Aren’t children supposed to be raised by the whole society? With no proper sleep a toddle out of bed to find responses to the multiple queries.
My first step was no different from what I had envisaged. I see a cheerful boy full of homecoming from what has become his home – a corner filled with old newspapers.
Watching from a distance I see how he brightly makes his newspaper home before he dashed to the nearby service station for a quick face wash and sprint to the nearby dustbin for an early morning breakfast before his day officially begins.
His routine is the same throughout the year – a quick face shower from the service station and an early morning breakfast from the bin – and year after, it is business as usual.
Not knowing where his next meal would come from or what the day will bring forth, he begins his day begging for pennies which he is not always assured to receive.
And when dusk finally approaches they dash back to their supposed pseudo home.I still stand to question what happened to the whole village raising all the children and one tends to wonder why there are still children in the streets of such a small population. Are the Save Our Streets (SOS) homes full or are the children reluctant to leave their pseudo home?
Many at times these children become repeated juvenile offenders and through the street life with tycoon criminals they are slowly molded into professional criminals.
I suggest that a school of industry is built for these children to keep them busy and avoid running back into the street. Further so, juvenile offenders should opt to either to go the industrial school or be kept in custody.Till the streets are clear, Eewa!