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Some of the children beggers

Trained beggars with parents as teachers

Six-year-old Aisha has become a workhorse, begging on the streets of Accra.

With agile feet that bobs and weaves after people and around cars in traffic, she fears no danger, neither is she afraid to beg for money – her palm always has a coin or two.

Anybody who frequently uses the Tetteh Quarshie pedestrian bridge to the Accra Mall or the bus stop and walkway around the mall, would have probably been harassed by Aisha and other children for money or would have seen them begging or harassing others.

Born in Ghana, she was introduced to begging by her Chadian parents at age four.

 

Training

In stark resemblance to the “Oliver Twist” novel, she and her fellow “professional beggars” were taught the tricks and art of begging and convincing people to give them money by the older ones.

The first trick is to approach their targets with a sad and pitiful face, hoping that will convince them to give them money, if that does not work, they grab them by their clothes and in some cases cry. Some even go to the extent of following the likely “givers” to where they go to board cars to their destinations. Some people, out of pity, and others who see them as a nuisance give them money; others too are not that considerate and, therefore, insult and tell them to go back to their country.

Breadwinner

To Aisha, begging is a necessity and the only means by which she can survive.

The money she makes, like all the other beggars, supports her family.

Her parents and older siblings refuse to beg because in the words of one of them “people won’t have pity on us like they have on the children.’’

They, therefore, prefer to sit lazily under a shade; supervise the children’s activities and collect what they make periodically.

One would think these children resent what they do owing to the dangers and harsh conditions associated with it.

On the contrary, they seem happy about being responsible for feeding their parents and older siblings.

“My dad made me understand that the whole family will go hungry if I fail to make any money, I must, therefore, work hard to meet his expectation,” Aisha said with her arms stretched, indicating to other people not to forget why she was at the Accra mall.

With this kind of mentality, the children compete fiercely with one another to attract the attention of possible givers.

“We are from the same country, but we come from different families, what we do out here is survival of the fittest, if you exhibit any form of weakness you will go home empty-handed which means you will sleep on an empty stomach,” Aisha said, while making a sign to her colleagues not to come closer to us while we were conversing.

Time to go and beg

While some children’s days are packed with activities such as going to school, doing homework and helping with chores at home, Aisha has one predominant activity- hustling people for money.

Her day begins at 5. 30 a.m., because according to her, “my dad says I have to catch the attention of those who go to work early.”

She begs from that time to about 7p.m., occasionally taking a break with her parents under the shade.

Aisha, just like the other beggars, has never set foot in a classroom.

The only form of education she has had was the one given to her by her older siblings and parents on the art of begging.

Exploitation

The Head of Information Research and Advocacy of the Department of Children, Mr Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi, described the situation as an abuse of the rights of the children.

‘’The act of begging is a clear example of exploitation; the older ones know that people have a soft spot for children. They, therefore, take advantage of that and use the children for financial gains,” he said.

Refugees, asylum seekers or economic migrants?

The children who engage in this activity and their families are mostly from Chad, Mali, Niger and Sudan.

As a result of the ECOWAS protocols, which allow free movement of people and goods among countries in the subregion, many of them travel to the country and other countries in the subregion unimpeded.

In an interview, some of them claimed to be running from conflicts and political prosecution in their countries but contradicted themselves when they stated that they went home periodically to either check on their families or to bring them over to Ghana.

Their stay in a particular country depends mainly on the economic conditions in that country and the freedom given to them, and in most cases they are allowed to go about their business with no or minimum restrictions.

To make their begging activity easier, the young ones, who mainly engage in the activity, are introduced to the local languages of their host countries.

People should, therefore, not be surprised when these children approach them and start asking them for money in any  local language.

 

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