By Mabinty Kamara
A 2015 report from the Needy Child International indicates that forty nine thousand six hundred and ninety-six (49,696) Sierra Leonean children work and live on the streets.
While two thousand seven hundred (2,700) live permanently on the streets, forty-five thousand (45,000) children between the ages of 6-15 in the Western Area of Sierra Leone are not going to school but are engaged in stone mining.
The statistics above shows that children in Sierra Leone are extremely vulnerable as they are being deprived of their basic human rights which they should enjoy as children.
Even though the country is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child, requiring that states act in the best interest of the child. Children are abandoned by policy makers in Sierra Leone making their situation difficult.
The vulnerability of the children is not unconnected to the poverty rate in the country as many parents can’t afford to cater for their children. This has led to high level of street children, and teenage pregnancy among girls.
Recently, the country recorded fourteen thousand (14,000) teenage pregnancies during the Ebola period when school activities were withheld and those children were banned from taking their public examinations and attending schools which brought a lot of controversies between policy makers and child rights activists.
Jounna Tom-Kargbo, advocacy and campaign manager at Save the Children International said that that was one of the reasons that prompted them to embark on the ‘every last child’ campaign. That campaign was aimed at targeting every child in Sierra Leone, with a particular focus on child mothers who have been abandoned and discriminated against.
Mrs. Nemata Majeks-Walker, founder of the 50/50 Group, said at the launch of the ‘every last child’ campaign that some “sixteen thousand (16,000) under-five children are likely to die due to lack of proper medical care in the country”, adding that the ‘every last child’ campaign would leave no room for poverty and discrimination of children.
Mrs. Walker urged all Sierra Leoneans to rise up and support Save the Children in their campaign, noting that: “the campaign is not all about save the children but everyone. So let’s support the ‘every last child’ campaign for the better growth of our children.”
She went on to say that if 14,000 populations were reduced from the school going population, what would the future hold for a country as small as Sierra Leone with high level of illiteracy?
“Even as that the men are more educated than the women. Cutting off such a number on the already existing low number will be adding salt to injury. So please let’s embrace every last child in the country including child mothers as they matters to the growth and development of our nation,” she said.
Isaac Ooko, country director, Save the Children International said that the campaign in Sierra Leone is focusing on teenage mothers as the situation of teenage pregnancy in the country worsens during Ebola. Whiles many blame it on the child mothers, the pregnancies are often as a result of sexual violence, lack of awareness and access to basic sexual and reproductive health.
Mr. Ooko added that the every last child campaign is calling on decision makers at the household, local, national and international levels to ensure barriers that prevent the poorest children from accessing life saving services are eliminated. “We are also calling on world leaders to commit to three basic guarantees namely fair finance, equal treatment and accountability,” he said.
Millicent Boateng,a teenager and child right activist, called on all the leaders in the world including Sierra Leone to give them a guarantee for their development as children.
“We want to be guaranteed of fair finance so that essential services are financed in a sustainable way and free for everyone to use, equal treatment for all children and for decision makers to be held accountable,” she said, adding that they wanted to know the budgets coming in for children.
“We want to be included in the decision making and our voices to be heard. Why are our leaders concentrating so much on road construction and other infrastructural development, neglecting the development of the feature generation”, she asked.
Children in Sierra Leone are also forced into early marriage, turning their future into child bearing. This is another issue responsible for the poor growth of children in the country.
Millicent Rose, a popular gospel musician, narrated her story during the launch that she, at age 13, was asked to marry a 65-old man but she said that she was fortunate to have escaped to the city where she continued her education but in the process, because of lack of love from those around her, she was trapped by teenage pregnancy.
“But my mother never abandoned me, instead she took care of the baby and saw me through school. I went up to university level. Had my mother abandoned me what would have become of me and my unborn child?” she asked. She therefore pledged her commitment to the campaign to ensure that teenage pregnancy stops with her.
She also encouraged parents to show love to their children because a simple hug from them means a lot to the children and that would prevent them from being misled by some men who would pretend to show them love. She said they must not be abandoned on the streets when they make such a mistake as there is a greater risk of losing the child and her future.
Mariam Samai, another child activist, urged child advocates and policy makers to get off their wheel-chairs and go to the last village in Sierra Leone and see how the children are doing.
“They only like to make media appearances to make claims of what they are doing or have done for children without going to see if the children are benefiting from what they claim to have provided,” she said.
Hassan Sesay, Member of Parliament, calls on elders, parents and chiefs to take up their responsibilities of taking care of the children.
“They are the forgotten victims of our decisions we make on their behalf,” he said, adding that if the need arises for child right abuses to be criminalised, they would do it.
“Our parliament is a listening parliament. That is why we are trying to merge the constitution with customary laws so that we can have equal age brackets of our children,” he said.
(C) Politico 03/05/16
