Government says it has placed the removal of children from the streets top on its development agenda.
Minister of Youth, Sport and Child Development Vincent Mwale said it is government’s desire to ensure that children are removed from the streets and placed in families and alternative care facilities.
Mr. Mwale said government remains committed to ensuring that no child is abused, neglected or subjected to any degrading way including those living on the streets.
Mr Mwale said this in a statement issued to ZANIS in Lusaka today to mark the commemoration of the International Day of Street Children which falls on April 12 each year.
This year’s International Day of Street Children was commemorated under the theme “Identity.
Mr. Mwale said this year’s theme is a reminder to all Zambians to identify with the difficulties children on the streets face in accessing key services such as education, health and protection systems among others.
And Mr. Mwale said government will continue to enforce the existing laws which protect children in the country.
Mr. Mwale however warned that individuals who cause children to be on the streets will be made to account for their misdeeds in line with the provisions of the laws of Zambia.
He said government is concerned with the rising number of street children in the country which currently stands at over 13,000.
Mr. Mwale has since urged all Zambians to join government in ensuring that no child sleeps works or makes the street a place of livelihood.
EXCELLENT AND I HOPE IT CAN BE DONE QUICKLY AS THOSE CHILDREN ARE POTENTIAL CRIMINALS IF LEFT TO UNDERGO SUCH HASH CONDITIONS OF LIVING IN STREETS AND ONE CAN’T BLAME THEM BUT THE GOVERNMENTS THAT HAVE COMPLETELY IGNORED THEIR PLIGHT. WE ZAMBIANS SHOULD LEARN ADOPTING HOMELESS/PARENTL-ESS CHILDREN AND THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD COME UP WITH THE SOCIAL PACKGAE TO ASSIST THOSE WHO ARE ADOPTING CHILDREN SO THAT THEY DON’T SURVIVE A FRYING PAN CONDITION ON TO END UP IN FIRE.
Place the children with family and pay family to foster
Its said; easier said than done. My question to this young Chipangali guy is; what plans do you have in ‘seeing – off’ those orphans and the vulnerable in our midst? Let’s hear your plan bwana minister amid your Grade 12 certificate. Zambia (sadly) has lost it. We have missed lots of chances to prosper due to greed, corruption and simply due to our own carelessness in handling issues such as this one. I am standing-by…
The irony! The Watchdog carries pictures of a school in Chipangali, Eastern Province, a constituency for the smart Minister of Youth, Sport and, Child Development, Vincent Mwale, here using key phrases as: “neglected or subjected to any degrading way, key services such as education” making one wonder if kids going to such a school would not opt to sleep under a lamp post if opportunity allowed them an experience of what their colleagues in other parts of the country enjoy! Our politicians indeed go for acquisition of “akalilo” and not to serve constituents! However while commending ZWD and other media houses for exposing such lapses in our politicians, as media you have failed to help citizens because years on end, now accumulated to 50 plus years post independence many of our…
contd….. communities have been living the same dilapidation state they did if not better under the colonialists! Media houses have not been giving the nation such insights! What is happening around the country especially in rural areas has ever been pushed to the fringe as being inconsequential concentrating on image building of individual political personalities and only bringing to light the plight of the rural populace at election time just to rouse emotions! Please incessantly help the nation develop through your pens and images and the gratitude of pupils attending makeshift schools as portrayed in Vincent Mwale’s constituency will accrue to you!
5 years in govt now this suddenly becomes a top priority…have you built foster homes, are you going to provide education facilities, training etc.
It seems our politicians just say things that they think people want to hear. Clearly this government has no plans on anything. If you documented all the things this government ‘was about to do’ according to all ministerial statements made since they came to power, you would soon notice the pattern of lies. About to set up a new airline … about to get back the remains of Broken Hill man from Britain … about to build a stadium and university in Western Province … etc. Minister please just keep quiet and enjoy the free food and booze laid on by Zamtel.
All Zambians need to remember our culture. Never would this phenomena have presented itself in traditional settings. Children were always absorbed into family members like Aunts, Uncles etc. in fact culturally Aunts and Unckes are called Little Mother/Father and are on same par with biological parents in raising children.
I hope this call is backed by a genuine programme to rescue children. Homelessness is not for children. It is soul distroying and hinders development of the human. The children grow into damaged adults. Before we sleep in our beds we should give a thought to the children. Only a cruel society treats children to such harshness.
The easiest strategy is to ask street kids their names and pair them with all workers and prominent individuals bearing their surnames e.g. a street kid with names like Amos Chilufya should be given to Tayali Chilufya and so on. Where some people have more then some payment to cushion them should be available from GRZ. Simple. So prepare a workers register.
While I commend this move by govt, it’s rather too late, too little. Street children started appearing especially on the streets of Lusaka as early as the 1990s, some if not most of these have “graduated” into street adults while some have made it out to somewhere.
Due to the harsh life they have been subjected to all that time, I think the majority are the ones who have become hardcore criminals who are now terrorizing areas such Kamwala, Chalala, Zingalume and so on and you wonder what led to all this? We warned previous governments about this time bomb, the worst is yet to come. Bear in mind that a part of this section has reproduced itself, so, Hon. Mwale walk the talk, provide us with the practical mitigation steps that the govt will take, those statements will not help the…
Some of these kids are biological children of rich men including Ministers, MPs, Pastors, Directors who have a habit of picking girls from the streets to put quick pipe…men of compromised morals shame on you.
ZAMBIAN POLITICIANS ARE NOT IN THEIR POSITIONS TO SERVE THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE, NO. IT IS TO ENRICH THEMSELVES, ALWAYS OFFICIATING AT SENSELESS OCCASSIONS JUST WASTING TAX PAYERS MONEY. HOW LONG HAVE WE HAD STREET KIDS IN ZAMBIA? IMMEDIATELY AFTER READING THAT SPEECH AND GOING AWAY WITH A FAT BROWN ENVELOPE, KWASILA, HE FORGETS ABOUT THE STREET KIDS, NO FOLLOW UP ACTION. ALSO ZAMTEL, JUST WANTS TO BE SEEN TO BE HAVEING SOME CSR!!