Street child beggars defy Gender Minister’s quit order

Accra Street beggars, including children have become more aggressive, harassing motorists and pedestrians for alms in apparent defiance of the Gender Ministry’s quit order.

The Caretaker Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah on December 8, led officials of the Ministry to collect data on the street children and their guardians, their lodging places, means of operation and the age range of children involved in the alms begging.

The step was to use data collected to take initiatives and as well seek partnership with the Niger Embassy in Ghana to quit the streets to protect the wellbeing of the children.

The monitoring exercise was part of the activities of the Ministry’s initiated “Street Connected Children Project” to promote free flow of pedestrians and motorists on the streets.

Street connected children are between the ages of one year and 18 years, or youth between 15 to 24 years who spend part or much of their time on the streets living or working.

Madam Dapaah, during the monitoring exercise, said it was illegal for them to be begging on the streets, adding that the Ministry would not tolerate that conduct.

The children mostly beg for alms calmly but become more aggressive on occasions when the generosity of the public ebbs while their mothers or guardians lay back some few metres away steadily watching to ensure their safety.

The Caretaker Minister said anyone with empathy for children should be touched by the phenomenon of people exploiting children for their selfish gains, calling it the ‘the most hideous act’ could do to a child.

She said the children were to be in school and not risking their lives to generate income into their guardians’ pockets.

When the Ghana News Agency visited some streets of Accra over the weekend, street beggars most of whom were children from Niger, Mali, and Chad, were seen plying the trade with more aggression.

When some of them saw that the GNA team on the streets around 37 Military Hospital in Accra, some gathered around them from nowhere, eager and excited to receive cash that was not promised, until they saw the team pull out a camera which made them take to their heels.

In an interaction with some of their parents who refused to identify themselves, they said they could not vacate the streets because the begging for alms was their only means to survival.

One of them said: “Nowadays, we struggle to get one cedi from an individual, so some of the people from my country (Niger) have resorted to selling hair growth and other skin care products but the Ghanaian citizens are not buying. Their conduct is as if they cannot trust us or our products.

“So the only means to survive is to beg alms because there are no jobs in our country and that is why we have come here”.
Ramatou Fatao, a seven-year old girl, One of the child beggars, in a response to the Ghana News Agency, over whether she wanted to be in school said: “Mepe sika, mame sika, menpe school, mepe sika (I want money, give me money, I don’t like school, I want money)”.

At Lapaz, Aisha Mohammed, a 12-year old girl from Niger, when briefed about government’s steps to rid them of the streets to protect them, said the Government should spare them to earn a living on the streets.

“If government wants to sack us, then it should give us work to do and place to sleep so that we will stop begging on the streets. Now, it seems people are advising others not to give us money anymore, so we can beg and beg and they won’t give us but we pay for our accommodation and everything from this same money,” she added.