The streets of Cameroon are turning in to homes for some run away and abandoned children.
Many of these children are between the ages of 7-22.Some are out for business, selling stuffs on their own to make a living, while others are out for no good, just roaming the streets like cow boys.
Taking a close look at this situation,many of these street children are foreigners from neighbouring Countries that surrounds Cameroon ,like Nigeria,Chad, Gabon, and central Africa Republic. Some stay with their whole family on the street and the parents stay behind in hiding while sending forth their children to beg money from passersby. One needs to be on the spot to see how they hold passersby, pulling them left and right to beg for money.
A good example is what I experienced with some friends on the 14th of October 2001 at 8 :00 pm when I just lost my job;
While with some of TIG members of the Cameroon team, at a snack bar, a certain young boy came up to us begging for money,of name Jille and he was 13 years of age and from a family of 12 children,hi m being the 8th. Jille requested for 50frs CFA(less than a US cent).He said he was very hungry and needed to buy something to eat.We offered him a chair to sit in our midst and we all contributed some few coins, more than what he requested for and gave him .
I tried to interview him in order to get the reason why he was roaming the street at that hour of the night.We all agreed on that,and this is part of the interview ;

Alex---Hello young man,whats your name and how old are you ?
Jille---My name is Jille and I am 13
Alex---where are you coming from at this hour of the night
Jille---From an aunt’s house
Alex---Why are you roaming the street and begging for money if you are from your aunt’s
Jille---I am very hungry
Alex---haven’t you eaten since morning?
Jille---I eat in the mornig but I was refused food in the afternoon and this evening because my mum say’s I refused to work in the house this afternoon.
Alex---Do you go to school?
Jille---Yes I do
Alex---Jille,why not being honest with us and tell us why you are out roaming the street at this hour of the night?
Jille---Okay!! I lost the money my mum gave me to give to one of my aunts and she has sent me out of the house till I get her money back.

Jille’s case is very common here in Cameroon,where parents send out their children from home because of one reason or the other .But getting all of Jill’s interview, one can not really tell why a mother should do this to her son.To very sure and certain of what Jille was trying to explain,I had to insist for a clear explanation, but the young man stood to his grounds and maintained his words with full assurance.
Why should parents go up to extend of frightening their own blood children up to the extend that they are pushed out the house.Jille doesn’t know his rights as a citizen of Cameroon and as a child.To avoid further complications we gave him the right amount which he lost(14000frs CFA => $20) and we took him back to his mother who was actually ahamed of her act and appologised to her son,but she still took the money we contributed.
A second of such case occured on the 16th,two days after we met Jille.But this time the child was far younger than Jille was.A primary school boy of 7years who left home(7:00 am) for school with any empty stomach. He could not stay in class for the for rest of the morning periods. By the time is was getting to mid day, Ben and I found this boy sleeping by the road side with very low breath rate. Ben got him up and I tried to ask the boy what was going on. He could not say a word and he was very weak and could hardly sit up right on his own. Ben suggested that we should buy him something to eat, so we did and the boy eat and drank something. We then began to question him and discovered that he had not eaten since morning. We took him back to his school and told his teacher what happened.
Getting both stories, one has many conclusions to draw about parents here in Cameroon as being very careless towards their children and I’m sure, towards their whole family. Also there is actually a high birth rate here in Cameroon, where by parents bring forth as many children than they can care for.
We have now decided to take a closer look to this issue than before, and by this doing, sent out three talented youths to carry out a search on this and to produce a detail report. We also call on foreign bodies and home bodies to also take action on this issue,since must of the street roaming is due to the high rate of unemployment here in Cameroon.
What can really be done is to create job opportunities these youths to keep them busy and as a result will also reduce crime rate.