Nkendem Forbinake
4 November 2009
We all too often look at the question of abandoned children as an imported model; a phenomenon that is not only unusual in our known mores, but rather something exotic and, sometimes, an issue for academic discussion.
And yet the phenomenon is right there on our doorsteps. In Yaounde, motorists can no longer pretend that abandoned children do not exist. At each stop at traffic lights, the swarm of fresh-faced lads who spring up to windscreens with proposals - that can range from the instant cleaning of a windscreen to an enticing price proposal for a popular consumption item - is likely to be an abandoned child.
To a very large extent, this phenomenon is circumscribed to urban areas and takes the form and looks of another type of rural exodus.
One can even talk of a manifestation of the fragility of the family nucleus which, in Cameroon, has been relatively intact in the rural areas.
Many of the youths found roaming the streets come from disintegrating families in the main urban areas. But many more, especially in Yaounde and Douala, are from adjoining rural communities. In the past, it was the teenage girl child that distraught mothers - caught in the web of a difficult economic environment - easily sent to the urban centres to exercise the "oldest profession in the world". With AIDS putting a deadly stigma on prostitution, these same distraught parents have found a new alternative. The teen-age boy child has also been let loose to go to town in search of fortunes. This probably explains why very few parents come up to declare the "disappearance" of their children. And even when these street children are picked up by appropriate government agencies or NGOs, they are never ever so ready to go back home even with the most beguiling proposals.
This state of affairs is sufficiently telling of the complexity of the situation, especially as one would have expected parents of straying children to come up rather enthusiastically when a street child is found and his or her origin traced. But the near-indifference of parents or relatives in such situations further explains why the issue is deeper than the eye can see. The state of affairs is a betrayal, not only of the sacrosanct nature of the African family but the sanctity of life in the African family context, so scandalously fragilised by letting siblings go out into the unknown world.
In yesteryears, scourges were few. The children could glide into crime and could easily be attracted into narcotics. Now, the dangers are a lot more. There is AIDS. The phenomenon of homosexuality is growing, just as their fragile posture on the streets exposes them to being recruited as sex slaves.
It is the old African family organization that is being threatened by the phenomenon of abandoned children.
Various government agencies are trying to fight the tide. But no such government initiative can ever be efficient without the contribution of parents who are the main accomplices of the situation.
There is need for a synergy of concerned citizens to give government programmes some chance for success. And such synergy begins with making every parent have the feeling of guilt each time confronted with an abandoned street child. The small nagging question in every parent's mind should be if this abandoned or estranged child was really my child, what would be my attitude?
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