Charles Mbo

STREET CHILDREN IN DRC Worldwide, more 100 million children live on streets. In Eastern Europe there are 100,000 street children. In Berlin there are an estimated 3,000 street children. Their number in Kinshasa isn’t well known but it is growing. Of course, in Kinshasa many factors move these children to live in street. First, when they has rejected, ejected, neglected or abandoned by parents or guardians. Second, they are growing number of street children is heartrending evidence of the deep poverty. According to me, poverty and other problems have eroded family ties so that the street children were forced to fend for themselves. Third, when they have lost one or both parents. The child who has not yet loved is biochemical, physiologically, and psychologically very different from the one has been loved. Ninety percent of street children have a family. About 90 percent are assaulted by their parents and therefore flee, getting involved in crime, drug abuse, sexual exploitation on the street, or became what we call always in Kinshasa kadogo. The fourth reasons for increasing number of street children are the economics difficulties, the war of rebellion, and so forth. The foremost reason is the fulfillment of Bible’s prophecy. God foretold that, in the last days critical times and hard to deal with will be here. However, many of them fall victim to the thriving child-sex and are exploited. They eke out a meager living as street vendors, thieves, and beggars. In Kinshasa, on the average, street children with no parental supervision start at the age of 8, while school-going children with guardians start at 11. When they become street children, they prostitute themselves to grant sexual favors to others in exchange for money, gifts, or other payment and in so doing use their bodies as commodities. Sometimes the prostitutes may be of the other sex; throughout Kinshasa the majority has been women, who have usually entered prostitution through coercion or under economic stress. Commenting on the life of street children, one former child prostitute [Nanu] said: “You’re scared out here. You know, what gets me upset is that a lot of people think that when they see a kid sleeping on a market, or they see a kid hanging out all the time, they think its cause they want to be. Now that I’m older, that’s not how I see it; these kids are each crying in their own special way. They don’t want to be like that, but their parents don’t want them.” Regan is just one of the thousands of street children in Kinshasa. He makes a little money cleaning shoes, and he sleeps on the pavement near the bus station, along with other children who huddle close to one another during the cold nights. Sometimes he turns to petty crime to bolster his earnings as a shoeshine boy. Twice the police have beaten him up, and he spent three months in prison. Regan insists that he has now almost given up drugs and sniffing. He dreams of being a mechanic, of learning a trade. At kingasani ya suka, Domingo was just nine years old when his father died. When his mother remarried, he was packed off to her Aunt. The harsh treatment he received in her Aunt made him decide to join a group who were planning to escape. Although his mother took him back when she heard of his plans, several beatings from his stepfather convinced him to leave home. He became one of thousands of Kinshasa street children who shine shoes, sell candies, or even deliver drugs in order to survive. In most countries, orphans are recognized as the government’s responsibility, and the government arranges for their care. For instance, in the United States, both state and federal legislation provides for aid to orphans in various forms, including their total support in orphanages and foster homes, when necessary. Generally in Kinshasa there is no orphanage recognized by government to help these children. However, sometimes orphanages are maintained by religious organizations, by social or fraternal organizations. Recently, Ngiama Makanda Werra son has made up is own. We can make efforts to integrate the children’s lives with the life of the community. Qualified people with medical, psychiatric, and social work training can make themselves available to care for the street children. A solution is being made to solve the problem by means of charity, foster homes, orphanages, and reformatories. Parents can provide part of solution. Of course, parents themselves hold one of keys to the problem. In Colossians 3:21 and Titus 2:4 the Bible says: “Do not be exasperating your children, so that they do not become downhearted, and who love their children will not have children who experience the physical or mental pain of abuse in any of it various forms.” There is almost, a last, an everlasting solution, which many men did not think about. Yes, it is possible for God to remove the present system and introduce a new way of live; since He is the Grand creator and the Most One in universe. Well, that solution is a divine government called by many Jehovah’s Kingdom. In Revelation 21:4 we read: And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away. Moreover, God added that these words are faithful and true. In Isaiah, the Bible adds: they will certainly build houses and have occupancy. They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are offspring made up of the blessed ones of Jehovah, and their descendants with them. In addition, it will actually occur that before they call out I myself shall answer; while they are yet speaking, I myself shall hear.