Street children resort to vegetable hawking

Many street children in Namutumba District have resorted to hawking vegetables such as eggplants and tomatoes for survival.
On Tuesday, this reporter took a tour of the town and could not help noticing street children, many of them in dozens, moving from house-to-house with their merchandise.

Some who spoke to this publication said since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country, authorities have targeted them for eviction from the streets despite having no symptoms of the disease or coming into contact with known patients.
One of them, whom we can only identify as Michael, said farmers pay them a commission ranging from Shs1,000 per day to help them sell their vegetables.
“We are now selling such items as we wait for the President to lift the lockdown,” he said.

Robert, another street child, said the president’s directive banning both public and private transport has greatly affected them.
“Our main source of income were the taxis and private cars because people who gave us money used such means of transport,” he said.
He added: “Some of us are orphans but with dependants, so staying home without work means people who eat through our sweat will suffer.”
Namutumba District, like many other urban settings, grapples with a growing number of street children partly due to a surge in domestic violence and school dropout rates.

Parents blamed
Mr Ronald Muwanika, a resident, blamed the increased numbers of street children in Town on their parents.
“During this Covid-19 pandemic, we have learnt that some parents are the ones who send their children to the streets to beg for money,” he said.
Mr Muwanika said some parents are seen coming for their children from the streets in the evening and taking them home.
Ms Robinah Nabirye, 55-year-old widow in Kangulumo Village, Namutumba Town Council, said her daughter passed on in 2017, and left her with four grandchildren and since she has no job, she decided to send the grandchildren to the streets to beg for money and collect scrap in town for sale.

“My grandchildren have managed to feed me for the past two years. However, I was shocked when they returned home and told me police had chased them from the streets. Right now, they are selling farmers’ vegetables for a commission,” she said.
The Namutumba Town mayor, Mr Godfrey Mwembe, wondered why some parents have resorted to sending their children to the streets to beg for a living.
“Last year, we registered an abnormal increase in the number of street children after noticing that some children were on the streets following orders from their parents,” he said.
Mr Mwembe, noted that besides the lockdown and curfew, late night theft and defilement cases have reduced because a number of street children were involved in such practices.

[email protected]