On
our traffic-prone roads is a negative phenomenon that is currently fast gaining
root in the country — children begging. Most of these children come in the
company of either their biological parents or guardians who use them to beg for
money and as escorts for physically or visually challenged people.
We
see them everyday in between heavy traffic jams, either pulling the wheelchairs
of the physically challenged or leading the visually impaired to passengers to
beg for money.
.JPG)
[kid begging at night, Osu Oxford street]
[kids begging in heavy traffic]
Around
Spinal Junction near Accra Mall, neear Awudome Cemetery Junction in Accra,
around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, and even in Osu Oxford Street, a child would
come and hold the hand of a pedestrian as he or she passes by or while seated
for a drink and beg for money to buy food to eat. Although this form of
begging was initially linked to foreign children believed to be from the
Sahelian Region, the strategy has, of late, been adopted by Ghanaian children.
[beggarly kid believed to be from the Sahelian Region]
The Department of Social Welfare (DSW) attached to the Domestic Violence
and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), is said to have announced plans to rid the
streets of children who were used to beg and prosecute those who engaged them
in the act, yet nothing has been done.
Doesn’t the potential for a bright future for these our future leaders
look extremely bleak?
No comments:
Post a Comment