Govt chase street children out of capital city Lilongwe

Officials from the ministry of Gender, Women and Elderly are now walking shoulders high in Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe having successfully chased away street children and relocated them back to their parents.

Principal Secretary in the ministry Mary Shaba described the whole operation as successful.

Street children never go to school and are blamed on petty thefts and rape on the streets although sometimes they are trained and used y professional robbers.

“We are remaining with 200 only who have completely no single parent and we are placing them in rehabilitation homes like Chisomo Children Home,” she said.

She said with the help of the police, they managed to round them up and took them to their homes where their parents are.

Shaba ruled out the possibility of the street children coming back to the streets, saying the parents have been sternly warned of the consequences.

“If they come back on to the streets, then we will charge the parents with a criminal offence. Any parent whose child is found on the streets will be charged with a criminal offence, it is provided for in the laws,” she said.

She said the same operation to remove street children forcibly away from the streets will hit Blantyre next month.

Most rehabilitation homes in Malawi, which are private, face acute shortages of resources including money to run their institutions and look after the welfare of large numbers of street children.