Kabwe plans to remove street kids
KABWE District Social Welfare Officer, Musenge Musonda has disclosed that her department is in the process of ridding the streets of Kabwe of street kids.
Ms Musonda said the exercise would be undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Child Development.
She said currently, Kabwe district has over 80 children aged between eight to 15 years old that are roaming the streets as well as over 200 aged between 3 months and 15 that are in various facilities.
She said the major concern is on the children that are on the streets because of various factors such as neglect, peer and sexual abuse and just the lack of discipline and responsibility amongst the children, themselves.
Mrs Musonda said although some of these children are orphaned, neglected and vulnerable, others are just in the streets out of their higher propensity to make quick money through selling plastics, doing piece works as well as scavenging.
She disclosed that more interventions aimed at domesticating these children in safe facilities are being considered and that the categorization of the children has since changed from street kids to children in need of care.
She appealed to wellwishers to support the department with regards to ensuring that the children are integrated into families and safe facilities.
Mrs Musonda also said the children need a lot of love, care and encouragement to go to school and learn with their peers especially now that the government has actualized the free education policy.
She said the programme of removing children from the streets requires adequate support and consented efforts because it is for the benefit of the entire country.
She added that her department is working tirelessly to ensure that the program of getting the children off the streets is implemented by July, 2022 because it is actually long overdue.