Street boy soldiers on

It may sound fictitious but it`s real: Nicholaus Issa is three-people-in-one. From sunrise to noon, he is a student and then converts to part-beggar and part-odd jobs operative in the streets up to late evening.

By Peter Mwangu

It may sound fictitious but it`s real: Nicholaus Issa is three-people-in-one. From sunrise to noon, he is a student and then converts to part-beggar and part-odd jobs operative in the streets up to late evening.

The “third person“ rounds off the day when he retires for the night, not in the conventional sense of sleeping under a roof, but in the open.

15-year-old Nicholaus is a street child, who shares the degrading label with several other boys and girls in Dar es Salaam and other Tanzanian urban centres.

The only difference for him, which makes him luckier than several of his core community-mates, is that education is one of the components of his life while that of others is confined to two, and both negative.

Nicholaus is a Form One student at Halisi Secondary School in Ilala District`s Ward of Chanika at Majohe Kichangani area.

The headmistress of the school that opened two months ago, Hadija Mregerera, told The Guardian on Sunday yesterday that Nicholaus` performance is impressive.

She added that, the boy`s attitude is gradually changing from a street environment orientation to the mainstream life variety.

This, she explained was the product of counselling that is availed for the boy who hails from Mwanza Region.

The youngster told this reporter: “ HIV/Aids robbed me of my parents, making my life extremely difficult. I left Mwanza and shifted to Dar es Salaam, hoping that it would be better.

In the city of so-called bright lights, Nicholaus joined a community of street children.

Casting pessimism to the winds, and burning with an ambition to liberate himself from misery and deprivation, he sought and secured enrolment in the secondary school.

This, he reckoned, would be a foundation upon which he would build a decent livelihood and secure future.

He gives considerable credit to his specific family group of street children, who are partly sponsoring his education on items like uniform and stationery. Schoolmates plus Good Samaritans beyond school are also chipping in with various forms of assistance.

Nicholaus, who is eyeing law for a profession, says that the “relatives“ fuelled his desire, because they believe, as he does, that the education he would acquire would be collectively beneficial.

The “relatives“ have also imposed a strict code of ethics upon their would-be future savior – no smoking marijuana or using drugs!

On street life proper, the boy says it is tough, because its highlights include begging for alms from a public that includes people who sweepingly brand them thieves, scavenging in garbage bins for food leftovers, and lack of direct access to medical care.

Security at night is a primary concern, he points out, indicating that the community members huddle together because isolation would lay the person prone to all manner of risks, including sexual attacks.

Nicholaus also cites petty thievery, explaining that although they do not have noteworthy assets, their few possessions are potential targets of thieves.

Books and stationery are among his most treasured possessions, he says, adding that he keeps them securely below what passes for a pillow at night.

An accusing finger is pointed at the Police, who, he alleged, periodically raid their “homes“, rough them up and order them to leave.

“But leave and go where?“ asks the boy, partly angry and partly bewildered, “we belong to the streets through no fault of our own.. Its not that we like it here, but at least it is home to us…at least in the interim.“

A shy companion who was reluctant to reveal his name expressed misgivings against people who often told them to go back to their home villages.

The lad said if life there had been good, they would not have migrated to urban centres to end up in the streets, leading a life of uncertainty and risks even to their very lives.

It“s a point Nicholaus reinforced, pointing out that being injured or killed by the so-called angry citizens was part of the pattern of street children`s life.

The attackers, he said, were not remorseful because the youngsters, some of whom were driven to criminality by circumstances beyond their control, were perceived as worthless and their death was thus equated with good riddance.

This is the common thread that runs through sentiments aired by street children who were interviewed by The Guardian on Sunday.

They sought, from the government and individuals, sympathy and understanding, an incisive probe into factors that breed them and elimination of those factors.

Source: Sunday News