‘Street-connected mothers and children facing many serious socio-economic challenges’

* The are exposed to various life challenges such as social rejection and the mothers were mostly victims of sexual crimes

* We are implementing various interventions to address these challenges that street-connected mothers and children face

* One of the interventions is to unite or reintegrating them to their families—Blantyre District Social Welfare Office

By Memory Khutuliwa, MANA

Limited access to health care, homelessness, poverty and family breakdown are major factors that drive mothers and children into streets in the cities and other urban areas — as observed by Blantyre District Social Welfare Officer, Ireen Lakudzala.

Lakudzala said this in relation with increased street-connected mothers and children amidst current cold weather condition and other social challenges in the city, saying these vulnerable people were exposed to various life challenges such as social rejection and the mothers were mostly victims of sexual crimes.

“We are implementing various interventions to address these challenges that street-connected mothers and children face,” she said. “One of the interventions is to unite or reintegrating them to their families.”

Child Rights Activist, Amosi Chibwana said mothers who were born from street-connected parents end up in the same situation where they face numerous challenges.

He also observed that poverty, family breakdown, single parenthood are common factors leading to the influx of mothers and children on the city streets, thereby depriving the children of their rights to education, health and right to play — affecting child growth, care, development and survival.

“Children who grow in the streets with their parents or sent by their parents to beg in the street lose their intellectual; social and emotion touch with their homes and community,” he said, adding that it becomes a challenge for foster parents, child care and reformatory facility to manage children who are raised in the street after moral decay takes up the course.

“Children who are raised in the streets are unable to access education because of the stereotypes and negative perceptions that the society has on them,” he said.

Chibwana disclosed that activists continue to advocate for the rights of children including street-connected children for their social welfare, protection and justice on top of encouraging the children to go to care institutions for their best care.

“It is important that laws should be enforced on parents whose children are on the streets but this must do because the very same parents are required to provide care and support to their children.”

Chibwana added that reintegration, relocation and all interventions to tackle mothers and children street connectivity should be done in the best interest of the child as provided by the law.

He called on communities to put mechanism that should take full responsibility to raise children in their communities to become reliable citizens other than creating situations that could compel mothers and children to go into streets.

One of the street-connected mothers in Limbe, Matilda Jafali said she lives with her two children in the street because her husband left her when she was expecting her second born child.

“I left home when I was five months old pregnant for my second-born child,” she said. “My husband lied to me that he was going to look for greener pasture in Mozambique and I waited for months until one day his friend told me that my husband married another wife.”

Jafali added that the rejection put more suffering onto her and the two children such that she could not help it but to go way: “I failed to feed my first child and to feed myself, I was in extremely poverty and had no peace of land to cultivate, I had no house and that is why I am here.”

Jafali has four kids, two were born in the streets after a man raped her after disguising himself as good Samaritan who could offer her startup capital for business while another man came in to promise her marriage.

A source privy to street-connected children confided with Maravi Express that there are some older street-connected men who engage most children to go and beg.

“The blind men and women you see around being guided by children are usually not parents of such particular kids but are assigned by these ‘Dons’ of the street,” he said. “At the end of the day, a percentage of the money raised is given to these dons.

“It’s a very tight network and it’s very difficult to break because the children never reveal them as they seem to have pledged an oath of allegiance and secrecy,” he said.

There are many NGOs that try to rescue street-connected children that include Step-Kids Awareness (STEKA), a family home for vulnerable children taken off the street or from abusive situations.

Founded in 2007 by Godknows Maseko and his wife Helen, STEKA has made huge strides in nurturing the children through education, access to health care and taught various vocational skills.

NGO — registered under Child Reform and Development Assistance sector — also built a stately skills vocational training centre in Lirangwe, that also offers its free services to communities sorrounding it.

At STEKA’s establishment, Godknows’ and his wife Helen’ goal was to remove children from the streets to protect them from abuse they faced and the poverty they lived with on the streets of Malawi.

Maseko doesn’t keep it a secret that he also escaped from a life on the streets and understands how to transform things for these children while also emphasising that STEKA is not an ‘orphanage’ nor an ‘institution’ — but a loving family.

The children are brought by social services or the police and once they indicate their intention to staying for good, they make sure that all their new children who don’t know their biological parents adopt their surname of Maseko.

“They call us mum and dad and for children still in contact with biological parents, we become aunt and uncle,” he said in an earlier interview with Maravi Express. “As a family, we all work together to support each other with everyone helping with chores and older children helping support the little ones.”

Feeding, clothing and educating such a large family isn’t easy, but the resourceful STEKA family — that operates with nine trustees and full-time staff members who work as volunteers — runs a variety of enterprises to bring in funds.

Helen is Montessori trained and, assisted by volunteers, runs a nursery school in the mornings when STEKA children go to school. They also raise chickens and run tailoring, upholstery and tourism initiatives to help sustain their STEKA home at Nyambadwe in Blantyre.

All the children are brought up to value their rights and themselves; in particular girls’ rights to equality and to resist early marriage.

The vocational training centre in Lirangwe also focuses on empowering young people to get their voices heard in a youth forum aimed at lobbying for marginalized children’s rights in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child — encapsulating many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The STEKA Village is being created courtesy of kind donors that include Portabell Rotary Club that donated one of the two blocks of classrooms and offices while the other was by Magdalena under St. Johns Parish — both from Edinburgh in  Scotland.

Meanwhile, Dadaz Chess Academy, in partnership with King Hunters Chess Club has opened a new shelter in Lilongwe for the Chess for Street Kids project aimed at providing a safe place for street children to learn and play chess.

On its Facebook page post on May 25, Dadaz Academy said “the project goes beyond just teaching chess — it aims to help street children develop important skills like thinking, planning, and discipline, which can improve their lives and futures”.

“The new shelter offers a stable environment where the children can focus on their chess lessons. It also serves as a community centre where they receive guidance and support from members of the King Hunters Chess Club.”

Dadaz added that the initiative is also made possible by the chess sets donated by US chess charity, The Gift of Chess, ensuring that all kids have the equipment they need to learn and play.

“Lilongwe City Council supports this project, recognizing its potential to help the community,” said the report. “By providing street kids with a safe space and meaningful activities, the project helps reduce the number of children on the streets and promotes a safer city.

“This is the first project of its kind in Malawi, marking a significant milestone in providing support and opportunities for street children through chess.

We invite everyone to support this important cause. Your donations will help sustain the program and provide meals for the children.”—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express