Dodoma street children plight

In Summary

• The situation is even worse for children who have been forced to become bread winners for their families as their parents spend the whole day drinking local brew
• Mr Kiweku Mpoto, the programme coordinator at Shukrani Child Care Centre, said most children escaped from their homes as a result of the parents’ poverty as well as the harassment they experienced from step mothers.

Dodoma. Poor parenting, divorce and economic hardships have forced many children here to engage in petty businesses and other money-making ventures in order to earn their daily bread and even school fees.

However, the situation is even worse for children who have been forced to become bread winners for their families as their parents spend the day drinking local brew.

Recently Dodoma Municipality has been awash with street children, most of whom help the elderly to carry luggage at market places in return for a fee, often Sh500 or Sh1,000.

Statistics available at the regional social welfare office show that more than 71,182 vulnerable children have been identified with thir parents said to died of Aids or divorced. Others are a product of poor parenting and poverty.

The regional social welfare officer, Ms Anna Gelle, told The Citizen that some fathers have been abandoning their family responsibilities, a situation he said prompted most children to flee from home in search of “better” life in the streets.

She said despite continuous assistance from the 28 orphanages operating in different areas within the region, the situation remained terrifying due to the daily increase in number of street children.

“If you walk along the streets here, you will encounter many hopeless children begging... many others carry around commodities,  searching for buyers. If the society will not cooperate with the government to address the problem, we are likely to create gangs of robbers in the near future,” she explained.

Dodoma District commissioner Lephy Gembe said his office was working with local government officials to overcome the long-standing problem, adding that they have embarked on a programme aimed at removing all the children from the streets.

He also said his office directed officials at district, division, ward and village levels to ensure parents enrolled their children in both primary and secondary schools.

For his part, Fr Vincent Boselli, a project manager for the Village of Hope orphanage, asked the government to revisit its policies on children’s welfare, saying his institution was accommodating and paying schools fees for many helpless children without any sure support from the government.