Chronicle Editor
Rufaro Winter, Chronicle Reporter
THE Government is worried about street kids who are taken into shelters or returned to their homes but escape back to the streets.
Despite numerous interventions to keep the away from the streets where they are often abused, the children often return.
Some that used to roam the Bulawayo city centre were temporarily housed at the Jairos Jiri Association Centre in Nguboyenja suburb while the responsible authority was organising their return to their families.
Most of the street urchins are teenagers that were rounded up under a programme which was facilitated by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed the lives of millions worldwide.
Last year everyone who was taken out of the streets with the help of social welfare and was returned to their homes and reconciled with their loved ones.
However, the majority of the kids have since returned to the streets validating the fact that they were returned to the homes with the same situations that made them leave in the first place.
The Chronicle team caught up with some of the boys who have returned the streets and have gone back to their old ways of making a living in the streets, “I was taken back to Mberengwa to stay with the same relatives who used to mistreat me, the same reason I left. So, I had no choice but to return to the streets,” said one of the boys.
Some said they were used to instant money through begging and car washing in town.
“We wash cars, and beg, at the end of the day we are able to buy ourselves drugs and food so just imagine going back home and sit all day while I know that there is place where I could always get money instantly,” said one of the boys.
In a telephone interview yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare, Lovemore Matuke said the street kid challenge was not going to be solved overnight.
“The issue of vulnerable children in the streets has been going on for a while and as the ministry we have been trying our best to do away with this story but as we are all aware the problem cannot be solved overnight,” said Minister Matuke.
“We can take them out but we can’t rule out the fact that they go back to the streets. We will not rest. We will continue to take them back,” said the Minister.
He said some of the children were enrolled in vocational training but still decided to leave.
“We even took them in and introduced activities that could keep them occupied such as building and sewing courses but the majority of them were not interested in the fact that they will have two or more years focusing on one thing, they want something that produces instant results,” he said.
“We can’t rule out the fact that they do not go back to the streets because they always do, some of them have lived in the streets ungoverned for years. They find it difficult to live in a place where rules are expected to be followed so they end up running away,” added Minister Matuke. – @rufarovaraidzo
Londile Moyo
Bongani Ndlovu