For the record, we’ve been champions of the plight of street kids for several donkey years! We’ve written countless articles about their plight. We’ve shared meals with them even they’ve dug their greasy palms into nshima and discoloured it. We’ve endured freezing nights with them on the streets to offer solidarity to them. We’ve dragged a good number of them to the clinic upon learning of their decomposing genitals. We’ve singlehandedly buried a few of them as we couldn’t locate their families. We’ve reunited some of them with their unwilling relatives.
We’ve been robbed of electronic gadgets after opening our doors to them. We’ve fought running battles with the so-called technocrats who’ve questioned our approach. We’ve almost got entangled in fists of fury with snobs who tended to think interacting with them encourages them to remain on the streets. We’ve endured two marathon walks from Kitwe to Lusaka to petition governments for meaningful interventions.
But lo and behold…….the plight of street kids remains as dire as it was 25 years ago, if not worse. Whether we’ve mounted gigantic billboards discouraging people from giving alms to the street kids from the nation’s capital to Kabwe; and replicated the same in all the Copperbelt towns……they keep turning up on the streets in good numbers.
Where’s the problem? What’s the problem?
A few years ago, we predicted that when they are no longer toddlers, they would be too ashamed to mill around the shops and ask for a “ka coin….” They’d retreat into the townships and cause havoc and terror; hence the so-called junkies lurking in the dark waiting to knife you and get away with your earthly possessions!
Give them another 10 years, where would these junkies be? For those who were not in matebela (diapers) in the 1980s, do you still remember those dark and chilling years when criminal gangs reigned supreme in the Copperbelt? Some semblance of sanity only prevailed when most of them were gunned down, extrajudicially!
Should we stop giving alms to the street kids? Would we rather see them starve to death or indeed rot to death with their STIs? What should be the short and long term solutions to this conundrum?
Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst
Kabwang’u, Zambezi
Are there any centres they can go to. For the very young they get a meal and bed in exchange for school attendance. As time goes by aim for family reunion. Healthy routine with shelter and school will be a good start other services can develop from there.
Some places in Zambian urban centers look like hell.Very sad that some people have to live and look poor this way in 2025 one would be mistaken to think this is 1870s.
It is better to send donations to schools so that these kids can follow them that side and get an educaiton
Another example of a failure of government. There are no adequate child welfare and protection services in Zambia due to the usual govt incompetence, fraud and no investment in social services. And years of getting US aid handouts to fund social services for overseas NGOs is over so the problem will only get worse.