By Natasha Mwandiyambira 

AS we go about our daily business, we encounter a section of the society that serves as a reminder that humanity now and again fails the most vulnerable, yet very important members of society, children.

These are are children who have come to be known as ‘nobody’s children’, the ‘invisible.’ 

Like all children, they have hopes, dreams and trust in society to protect and nurture them.

Children are being pushed into working and living on the streets by factors that include poverty, domestic abuse or even the ideal of ‘freedom’.

Some of the most pressing challenges street children face are maintaining basic health and accessing health services, violence and abuse. 

 Street children’s rights have been undermined. 

Apparently,  many children begging on the streets have embraced the term ‘street beggars’ assuming that it offers them a sense of identity and belonging. 

The umbrella description is convenient shorthand, but it should not obscure the fact that many children who live and work on the streets do so in multifarious ways and for a range of reasons, each of them unique, with their own, often strongly felt, point of view.

Tsitsi (not her real name), aged eight, is seen stopping each and every person who is walking along Harare’s First Street in the Central Business District (CBD), and presenting her case by giving passers-by a letter which one can hardly read because of fading ink, which she interprets.

Dressed in her dirty and torn uniform, one can hardly differentiate her from a street urchin.

Prescribed on the laminated letter she is carrying is a name of a local school which she claims she attends, with a signature on it requesting for money to pay for her fees.

She is supposed to be in Grade Three, but she admits she has never been to school since she was born.

Children like Tsitsi and many others suffer loss of basic rights such as the right to hygiene, education, health, protection, recreation and relaxation. 

They endure stress and fall victim to violence which can be verbal, physical or sexual and are exposed to dangerous drugs.

“It is awful and shameful to beg, but I do not have a choice since my parents are poor,” she says.

No matter how difficult or shameful it is, she has to beg because her mother, who is blind, forces her to go into the Central Business District to collect whatever she can get.

“This has become our source of livelihood; we survive through begging because my mother does not work,” she says.

Tsitsi does not beg for money only but she also asks for food which puts her at food poisoning risk.

When night comes, she leaves for her family home, in Mbare.

In essence, Tsitsi is a victim of child labour like the majority of children in street situations, who survive by vending, begging, washing cars, selling drugs and prostitution, among a range of negative coping mechanisms.

Despite having shelter they can call their own, they still have to eat and pay bills; that being the major reason they are forced to beg.

Because of visual impairment,Tsitsi’s mother cannot do much to help the family; she chooses begging as a survival strategy for her family.

“Since I am blind, I cannot work for my children like any ordinary mother can do for her children and my husband deserted me for another woman. Begging has become my survival strategy,” says the old lady.

On a good day, Tsitsi can get between $5 and $10 which is decent for her since it will help with the upkeep of her family.

This is almost the same case for every child begging in the busy parts of Harare. These children have become regulars at traffic lights, in front of shops and public parks such as Harare Gardens and Africa Unity Square.

However, the children rarely keep the money for themselves as it is channelled towards family upkeep or, in a worst case scenario, used to procure drugs.

According to a report by Save the Children, a Child Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), child beggars are exposed to daily life and health risks and ultimately to becoming victims of trafficking.

Save the Children adds that most of the child beggars are excluded from mainstream education.   

People doing business along First Street said little is known about the background of these children.

“We only see the children begging; we hardly know anything about their families and life except that they beg on a daily basis,” said Tawanda Mushonga, a secondhand phone dealer in First Street.

He added that there are no plans for the children to go to school since they are always in town every day asking for money.

International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines ‘begging’ as a range of activities whereby one individual asks a stranger for money on the basis of being poor or disabled.

An airtime vendor, who preferred to be identified as Amai Tinashe, said parents who forced children to beg should be arrested by the police.

“The future of children who beg is bleak. Imagine what will become of them when they are old and have their own children to look after. It will be a disaster and the begging cycle will be repeated,” she said.

A survey of children begging and living on the streets of Harare, conducted by UNICEF in 2018, determined that about a third of the children had either never gone to school or had dropped out of school during the early primary years. 

When these children get onto the streets, they often have no option but to adopt survival strategies, such as petty theft, drug trafficking and abuse and prostitution.

As a society, we need to constantly remember that the rights of all children, including those on the streets, are sacrosanct!