No child must be left behind -Nkrumah

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Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah calls on Churches to support the government address Homeless Street Children.

Not long after the speech she gave at the WA campus of University for Development Studies, Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah has called for a drastic action to address issue of “homeless street children”, especially on the Churches to help government to support street children.

The term “street children” refers to children for whom the street more than their family has become their real home. In many developing countries, including Ghana, many of these children are subjected to physical abuse or have been murdered outright, as authorities treat them as a blight to be eradicated rather than as children to be nurtured and protected.

In many of the major metropolis these children are frequently detained arbitrarily by police because they are homeless “KORBOLOR”, or criminally charged with vague offences such as loitering, vagrancy, or petty theft. Most often they are tortured and beaten not only by the police but members of the public and held in police cells for long periods in poor conditions.

Highlighting the plight of these homeless children, Ms Nkrumah said many of the children suffer not only abuse but majority face serious health problems ranging from malnourishment to lack of sleep, mental health, HIV AIDS and other diseases that are not detected because of their invincibility. Samia said the options for street children are few. She said very little attention has been paid to the constant violence and abuse from which many street children suffer. She said many of these children are branded as “anti-social” or demonstrating “anti-social behaviour” and are viewed with suspicion and fear by many who would simply like to see them disappear. Samia said “Yet these children have a right to identity, to be recognised as children of God, and to basic human rights”.

Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah said the tradition in Ghana of extended family taking in orphans no longer prevails. Yaba said poverty among the 80% poorest (those that she often refers to as her “constituents”) compounded by the AIDS pandemic has resulted in unprecedented number of orphans across all the regions, especially the 3 Northern Regions, and thus economically strapped relatives are finding it impossible to care for large numbers of children. She said to survive these children sell goods, beg, and steal and at night they sleep on shop fronts, in kiosks and abandoned vehicles and at the mercy of the elements. Samia said street children live in abject poverty, desperate group, living on the streets for myriad reasons and said no one knows how many street children there are in Ghana.

With her eyes firmly fixed on the portrait of her father, the late President and father and founder of Ghana Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Samia told how a one ten year old girl ask her for money to buy food during evening rush hour “go slow” and said “aunty I haven’t eaten since morning”. Samia said many of these children will be abandoned or sent into the cities because of sheer poverty and inability of the family to cope of feed the child. Some would have been sent to earn for the family and lost touch. She said common to all is family stress and breakdown, through poverty.

Samia said the Churches can help to rescue many of the young people by establishing youth centres with feeding component – food, clothing and place to sleep. Yaba said this will provide a level of stability for these young people. Samia said many of the young people she speaks to tell her they want to learn skills and to read, write and use computer. Samia stated that one desperate young girl she spoke to, about 16years old, said she has no family (both parents died of HIV AIDS) and had never been taught how to spell or write her name. All that she wants is to go to school. Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah said many children’s lives have been devastated psychologically, in addition to losing family members many have their education interrupted, she asserts.

Samia acknowledges that because of the economic situation in the country children must work, however it is the parents, not the children, should be earning the family’s living. She said no child must be left behind. Samia said the Church must show leadership, it must the agent that brings about change. She said the Church cannot proclaim that society should change and then do nothing to transform society. She calls on the Churches to help bring the children off the street, stimulate their creative thinking and develop their growth through partnership with the government.

Samia said she wants every child to have a stake in the country’s wealth, not just children of the few, but every Ghanaian child must share in the dream.