Lubumbashi Children Drift Back to the Street
Despite local authorities' best efforts to keep children off the streets, many yearn to return.
Lubumbashi Children Drift Back to the Street
Despite local authorities' best efforts to keep children off the streets, many yearn to return.
“We come to town to search for money and we return [here in] the evening to spend the night,” said a 19-year-old former street child at the Lubumbashi rehabilitation centre.
“We would like to study, but we do not understand the lessons because it is too late for us to learn to read and write. So what we look for is work.”
Since August 2009, children from broken families, who had been living on the streets in Lubumbashi, have been admitted to the centre not far from the city’s Kasapa prison.
Although safe here, many of these former street children – known locally as shégués – say that it is difficult for them to leave their previous lives behind altogether.
Another shégué, with brush and shoe-shine box in hand, said, “The governor has given employment to other shégués but we have been forgotten. We want freedom. We are not prisoners. We want to live in society and we want to be able to build families.”
Last year, the provincial government provided 100 jobs for shégués older than 18, but many who remain in the centre are upset that they have not also been offered an opportunity of employment.
The rehabilitation centre consists of dormitories, classrooms and even a football field. Although it was never intended to be a prison, those who live within the grounds are not permitted to leave. Many do manage to find a way out, though, often by bribing security guards.
In a documentary made by Carine Kabongo, a journalist in Lubumbashi, one shégué, identified as Fiston, testified, “We arrange things with the police who guard the centre. There is already a hole through which we can leave and return. We go to town to search for money and, when we return, we give [some of the money] to the police.”
People who live near the centre say that they are regularly troubled by children who escape.
“I was surprised when, returning to my house at 5 pm, some children who live in the centre stole a bag of bread out of my hands,” François Kabemba said.
Although the children in the centre are fed, reports are widespread of them pilfering food, as they had done in the past.
Another Kasapa resident, Micky Disasi, said, “The children, many of whom are older than 18, create much insecurity in the area. Recently, they stole my telephone. To recover it, I had to give them money.”
Aware of the problem of shégués returning to the street, the provincial government of Katanga decided on March 24 to send 215 of those older than 18 for professional training in Kaniama-Kasese in the north of Katanga.
Pierre Mukama, the administrator of the territory of Kaniama, says the operation has started well. All 215 shégués have now arrived at Kaniama, however he warned that the government must continue to support them.
“One might recall the mishap that Kaniama experienced in 2006 and 2007,” he said. “The government of Kinshasa decided to send 265 shégués from Kinshasa to Kaniama, but it then abandoned them.
“The local officials had to find the money to feed the shégués to stop them plundering shops and burning villages. The project eventually had to be abandoned before the formal end of their training. We hope that this will not happen again.”
Provincial interior ministry adviser Kalunga Mawazo insists that the regional authorities are committed to seeing the project through to completion.
“We are determined that these children can be reintegrated into society once they have learned a trade,” he said. “It costs nearly 200,000 US dollars a month for the province to support the needs of the children, which is why we think that those who are senior should learn a trade, allowing them to take charge of their own lives.”
While supporting the education of former street children, the government also wants to limit the attraction of going back on to the street.
On May 7, Jean-Marie Dikanga Kaza, the provincial interior minister, announced that children would no longer be allowed to sell sachets of water in Lubumbashi.
His justification was that this is a trade often carried out by children from broken homes, who end up on the street and are forced to sell the water by other adults.
Kaza says that the small amount of money they can earn from this work is often enough to encourage children to try to escape from the centre.
Héritier Maila is an IWPR-trained journalist.
Also see Story Behind the Story: The Street Children of Lubumbashi published in ACR Issue 266, 6-Aug-10.
The Story Behind the Story gives an insight into the work that goes into IWPR articles and the challenges faced by our trainees at every stage of the editorial process.
This feature allows our journalists to explain where they get the inspiration for their articles, why the subjects matter to them, and how they personally have felt affected by the often controversial issues they explore.
It also shows the difficulties writers can face as they try to get to the heart of a story.
