The life of Street kids

Olivier Mbarushimana, is a 15-year-old boy who lives on several Kigali streets fending for his life. Her said that his mother abandoned him for good, two years ago. “She left me two years ago and I don’t know where she went. I now survive on the rough streets alone,” Mbarushimana said. Mbarushimana is one of the hundreds of kids who have no one to turn to and so they trek to big towns, most especially in Kigali city moving from street to street begging for money and other edible things from passersby. The most favorable locations for begging are the richest parts of city where upper and middle class employees commute. Mbarushimana said that they can manage to sleep out on the streets for months at a go. He said that they are lucky to come across an abandoned house or shelter to sleep in.“Some kids are even lucky enough to end up in a shelter for runaways like me. Sometimes when conditions are hard, some kids find their way home again either by choice or against their will,” he said. However, those who are not content or who suffer more at home will runaway again and again. On other occasions, street kids are sent by their parents to beg for money to take back home. Instead of attending school, begging becomes their homework and a certain amount of money is expected on their return. By day, street kids weave impishly through vehicles stuck in the city traffic. They brandish everything from packets of gum, to tin cans wafting with incense, or a ragged bit of cloth to wipe your dusty windows in order to get money. By night, older teenagers are still hanging out at the main roundabouts, with empty mineral water bottles that would serve a purpose in the near future. Mbarushimana said that denied that he was drug addict however, he agreed that he is a reformed drug user, but his heavy-lidded eyes seem to give him away. He then admits that sniffing petrol can make this hard life a little easier. “You feel as if you are a giant. You don’t feel the weight on your shoulders,” he said. As much as the government is trying to remove street kids from the streets to foster families and vocational centres to learn skills, there seems to be an addiction to street life—they do not want to leave the streets. According to Emmanuel Nzabonimana, a 30-year-old motorcyclist, Life on the street is a terrible and dangerous because street kids live in trash bins, abandoned buildings and under bridges. “These are the kids that are abused and neglected by their parents. Their only alternative is to move to the streets with no money, few clothes and little hope. These children often wind up homeless and on drugs. Some resort to panhandling and shoplifting,” he said. “When they become adults, they will learn more from the streets and they will not learn a lot of positive things,” warns 26-year-old Jean Baptiste Manzi, a fuel pump attendant. Manzi added that, “majority of these children have talent, and if they have the opportunity to learn in a good environment, they will use that talent in a positive way and become good people, otherwise they will use that talent in a negative way. Last year over 600 former street children were taken to Iwawa Island on Lake Kivu in Rutsiro district by the Ministry of Youth. They have been engages in vocational training sessions aimed at modeling them into responsible citizens. Kanye_frank@yahoomail.co.uk