– Gender Ministry Declares
By Jerromie S. Walters
There must be multiplicity of intrinsic reasons for any patriotic Liberian to feel disturbed about the troubling figures from the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection’s recent report, as it shows that there are about 366,585 (three hundred and sixty-six thousand, five hundred and eighty-five) children that are living on the streets across Liberia.
These figures are resources from a recent report based on a survey conducted by the Ministry of Gender and its partners in an effort to have a comprehensive understanding of and data about the situation of children living and selling in the streets of Liberia.
As highlighted by the report, in Montserrado County, there are 153,982 children that are living in the streets, which is the highest of all counties, while there are 100 children that are residing in the streets in River Cess, which happens to be the lowest of all counties.
Of the total number of children that are on the street, there are 126,702 who are not in school at all.
The report, which emphasizes multidimensional poverty as the major reason for the overwhelming number, lists persistent child support (father absence), limited access to education, abandoned children, teenage pregnancy and early parenting, child labor, peer pressure, children accused of being witchcrafts, punishment, kids walking baggers, children that have decided to be that way, and the presence of drugs in the country as causes of the huge number.
It further confirms that children in Liberia are engaged in child labor in all sectors, especially domestic services, street selling, rock crushing, mining, the rubber industry, and so on.
Prior to the ascendency of George Weah’s administration, it is said that the Ministry of Gender never had existing data with regards to the number of street children and children that are staying on the street in Liberia.
With this, the Ministry over the last year worked with several partners, including UNICEF, to understand the situation of children living and selling on the street and hired local and international consultant networks to work with the Child Protection Network and all other NGOs that are involved with the issue of child rights to produce the report.
In February of this year, Bong County District 6 Representative, Moima Briggs-Mensah, raised concern about the recent wave of the massive increase in the number of street-selling kids across Monrovia and called on the authorities of the Ministry of Gender and the Liberia National Police to ensure that it is addressed in due time.
In an interaction with legislative reporters on Thursday, February 2, 2023, Representative Briggs expressed dismay over the proliferation of street-selling children, especially during school time.
She believes the children are being denied education, and they are also exposed to all forms of violence and abuse, especially with elections just a few months away.
“The most frustrating part about it is that even during school hours, you can still find children selling in the streets, and along with visually impaired people begging, I think it’s so alarming and it’s really scary,”, she said.
She added, “Especially for the ones that are selling, someone with an evil intention might call them pretending to be a buyer, and they might be interested; sadly, that’s how they might get entrapped in things for ritualistic purposes”
The Bong County District #6 Representative’s fear was mainly triggered by secret killings that often occur during electoral periods, especially considering the October 2023 elections that are just a few months away and the wave of multiple reports of ritualistic killings that have been reported of late.
“We are approaching elections, and some people are so desperate, they think the only way to get to power is to do terrible things, so we need to be careful with our children”, she said.
She recommended that the government ensure that street-selling kids are placed in safe homes in order to have them enrolled in school and completely removed from the street.
“These are things that should be important to the government, the safety of citizens, and the state, so we need to allocate sufficient money in the budget to ensure that they are addressed in time to avoid further embarrassment”, she stressed.
She pleaded, “I’m calling on the Gender Ministry to ensure that those children are taken from the streets because it’s risky for us, and if those children are killed, it will also hurt a lot of us because we have children.”
On Thursday, February 2, 2023, the Honorable House of Representatives (HOR, cited authorities of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection and the Liberia National Police (LNP to ascertain reasons why they have not taken action to curtail street selling by children in the country.
A plenary decision was reached Thursday following a communication from Bong County District 6 Representative, Moima Briggs-Mensah.
“Honorable members, a few months ago we commemorated the 16 Days of Activism as a country, thereby alarming all harmful practices and violations against women and children over the past years and finding means to eradicate these challenges”, she noted in her communication.
However, both the Gender Ministry and Liberian National Police were expected to appear the following Thursday, but it didn’t materialize.
In recent years, there has been a massive increase in the number of street-selling kids on major streets in Monrovia and children that are residing on the street.
Red Light, Broad Street, Capitol Bye Pass, and other major commercial areas across Liberia are vivid evidence of the female lawmaker’s concern for the Liberian legislature.
As disclosed by the World Health Organization (WHO), estimates show that 64 percent of Liberians live below the poverty line ($1.25/day), with 1.3 million living in extreme poverty.
According to the UNICEF 2020 report, Liberia has one of the world’s highest levels of out-of-school children, with an estimated 15 to 20 percent of 6–14-year-olds who are not in class.
