The harrowing experiences
Over the years, one of the problems which has been engaging the minds of many Ghanaians is the issue of “second generation of street children”, that is children of street children in the streets of Accra and some major cities in the country.
Children who were born on the street are the most vulnerable because of the type of environment they found themselves. They are always in constant danger of becoming ill, being associated with crime and other unlawful practices. They grow up without any culture except that of the street. Most often, the fathers of these children are not known or do not want to be known, making the women to be the only persons who cater for the children.
These children do not belong to any tribe and therefore do not learn any cultural values since their mothers are survivors themselves and do not have enough funds to cater properly for
their children; hence you will see them roaming and making friends while their mothers try to earn some money at the market or the street.
It has been the view of many concerned people that unless something was done about the issue of streetism, moral decadence, violence and crime in the country would only increase, including drug abuse, murder, stealing, homosexuality,
lesbianism, prostitution, armed robbery and indecent exposure.
The second generation of street children only learn the culture of violence, cheating and illicit businesses. With the influx of children and youth from the rural areas to the urban centres, the perception of people still holds valid that children who were the future leaders of the Ghana precisely, future Priests, Doctors, Engineers, Architects, Lawyers, Journalists and other professions, would be having a long way to go as about two million Ghanaian of them are engaged in various forms of child labour while about 21,000 are also on the streets.
As one walks or drives along the streets of Accra and its environs, a common spectacle hits one’s eyes of how these young ones have one way or the other turned the streets to a supermarket while some as young as between six to 15 years are seen selling while others between 15 to 24 years are seen nursing babies who belonged to them or their parents. There are also some children aged between five and seventeen years who prefer to be involved in working in the various sectors mentioned above than being in School to become great people in the future.
It is also glaring to see these children engage in various sectors of the economy including commercial, agriculture, fishing, weaving, mining, truck pushing, pottery and illegal mining (galamsey) under all circumstances instead of going to School or be apprenticed to a master tradesman or learn some trade or vocation.
Archbishop Naameh, the former Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Damongo and now Archbishop of Tamale once lamented that “unlike the mothers of the second generation of street children who had some cultural background, their children learn only the language of street children which is survival”.
The activities of the street children and their children in a way could be equated to the slave trade in the ancient day Ghana, after over 200 years of the abolishing of slave trade in Africa. As humanitarian sentiments grew in Western Europe with the Age of Enlightenment and the growth of religious groups such as the Quakers, and as European economic interests shifted slowly from agriculture to industry, a movement grew to abolish the slave trade and the practice of slavery.
A research by the University of Ghana in 1990, suggested there were about 4,000 street children in Accra. Six years later, the Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS), an NGO established in 1992 to provide support to children living on the streets of Accra, Tema and Ashaiman Metropolis, conducted a head count and the number was closer to 10,400 children., an alarming increase of more than 6,000 children. In 2003, CAS again conducted another headcount and believed the number to be 15,300.
