Street Kids In Nigeria Created By Poverty In The Land. How Can We Help?
Across Nigeria, there are children who do not feel good or happy. Their outward appearance paints a clear picture of their state of helplessness.
They appear untidy and are totally hopeless regarding their future. They live in the most filthy and awkward places like abandoned buildings, under bridges and so on. They retire to these places late in the night and leave very early in the morning so as to avoid being seen by the security agencies.
By the roadsides, we see children of different ages hawking goods, some begging for alms when they should be in the classroom. These kids are uncovered by the Nigerian constitution which say in section 34 sub section 1c that
"no person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour."
Poverty, fight to survive, being deceived to come to the city in search of white collar jobs and end up being house helps who are later pushed to hawk on the street are some of the reasons why these kids find themselves in this very unfortunate situation.
Amongst these kids are those who use the money gotten from hawking or street begging to train themselves in schools or start a trade.
There is the story of Kemi, a girl from the Western part of Nigeria. At the age of 12, Kemi lost her parents in a motor accident as they were returning from the village. Ever since this sad incident, Kemi was forced to live alone and cater for herself as help was not forthcoming from relatives and friends.
At that very young age, in other to survive the hardship, she started to hawk sachet water on the streets.
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A cold sachet of water is gold on the streets of Nigeria when caught up in traffic under the hot sun.
She decided to provide this 'Gold' to motorist in exchange for money.
With the help of a kind woman, Kemi was allowed to take these sachets of water on credit to sell till the profit she made was enough for her to stand on her own.
This went on for years. She survived the hardship of the land with the profits from her sales.
Today, Kemi is a fashion designer, happily married and blessed with kids.
How Can We Help?
Childrens day is another day where at OneAfricanChild Foundation, we seek to impact the lives of children by spending time and enjoying wonderful moments with vulnerable and community children.
This year, OneAfricanChild Foundation Ibadan would be having a street tour to reach out to the kids who lay on the streets and for one reason or another lack care and attention.
Our aim is to put smiles on their faces by spending time with them and also providing them with edibles while we look out for the exceptional ones we can take from the streets.
Great one bro. It is brilliant of you to be a part that initiative.
Thanks for the encouragement sire. Its always good to give back to the society and help out whenever possible no matter how little the help might seem.