STREET LIFE
Some of these children end up picking up bad habits like drugs, alcohol abuse, petty criminal behavior, improper sexual activities and consequently end up contracting diseases such as STIs, STDs including HIV/AIDS. Peer pressure can easily be averted by helping the children at very early stage. My belief is that parents and teachers can pick up the symptoms and counsel their children or pupils before the scourge blows out of proportion. For the children my advice is that they should learn to choose the right friends to be with or to play with.
David, a young male orphan, lived with his drunken, abusive uncle and an ill aunt. Fed up with life in his uncle’s house, he decided to take his chances with street life. Yet in the streets he was received into a group that was doing petty criminal activities, and now that he is almost twenty has a terrible police record. It will be extremely difficult for him to start a normal life.
Street life is full of challenges, risks and dangers. Regardless of the reasons for turning to the street, few are forced to stay there. Once a young person understands what street life really is and what the advantages and disadvantages are they can then decide whether it is the life they want and what other options might be available to them. Then it is up to them to make a choice.
Jack finished in the streets when he was 12years old, and he was in street for almost five years. He was used to street life, so the time came for him to think of something which can help him for a living. So it’s when he sat down and starts thinking what’s the best for me to be in the street? He had no home to turn to. He decided to work as a casual helper at the market, put aside a small capital while he was still sleeping in the streets, then with the help of a friend he acquired some skill in shoe repairing and now has a small kiosk selling and repairing second hand shoes. He is not a reach man, but can thing of marrying and supporting a family.
Children on the street are very vulnerable. To survive they may use drugs and then might do things they wouldn’t otherwise. They sometimes come across situations that, on the surface, might look beneficial to them but turn out to end up harming them in some way. They may do some work but are not paid what is owed them after doing it. They might be promised food and shelter for free but are forced to work hard for it. They might agree to do something legal only to find out that what is really required is very illegal. Some people can be nice and friendly but their real motive is to use or abuse the children.
It is important for children on the street to be aware of their vulnerability and avoid getting themselves into situations they don’t want to be in.
While he was in the street, a boy called Yona, he was “hired” by a certain man to go and steal from the shops. It started like a small adventure, it became a dangerous profession. After some months he was caught by the owner of a fruit kiosk from whom he has already stolen several time, and was beaten up severely, even by those passing by. Now one of his arms is not good, and he has little choice but to be a professional beggar, since he is afraid to steal again.
Children on the street have little option for survival. Some scavenge garbage to find food scraps or things they might be able to sell. Some beg, and others get work parking cars, carrying bags for people, or doing other piece work. There are other activities like stealing or threatening to harm those who don’t give them money which are illegal and can get them in trouble. Finally, some children may exchange sex for money, gifts or favors. Often children on the street are pressured by group leaders to take actions that are dangerous, mean or illegal. They may do this out of fear, or to avoid losing face in front of the others or feeling that they have let them down.
Febi was only ten, but she was used to the street life, she as been in the street for six years. She used to beg aoutside a busy supermarket. One day the boys and the two girls of the group started challengin her that she shoul sell sex to get more money. After a while she gave in and accepted to become a sex worker. Not three years passed before she was pregnant and when she went to the maternity clinic she was found with AIDS. She died with her baby, a month before she was supposed to give birth.
Children living or working in the street often feel alone and isolated. Many adults don’t like them because they think they are going to steal from them and they are good for nothing except causing trouble. Children on the street are often the first to be accused of committing crimes even if they are innocent. They are frequently insulted and are very vulnerable to harassment by some police offices and other adults who want to exploit them or make them suffer for the pleasure of it.
Children in the streets need to do a lot of critical thinking before they act. This is often done by them almost automatically, but it is a skill some of them develop at a very high level in comparison to their age. The concept of critical things, simply put refers to the practical of always weighing one’s options very carefully before deciding what to do. In that sense, critical thinking does not constitute an approach to decision-making that is used once only and is forgotten about until the next crisis of life surfaces. Rather, it is a habit, a lifestyle or a state of mind which once formed acquired or developed, should be put to use in everything that one thinks, says and does.
Children on the street are continually faced with important decisions to make and need to learn to adopt critical thinking in the order to fully examine the possible consequences of their choices and ultimately improve their chances of making good ones. I believe that it is the habit of critical thinking that helps many former street children who joins a place like Mthunzi, to perform above average in school and in life.
By David Mubita, 17, one of the Mthunzi Boys since 2001, after having spent 2 years in the streets.