Damilola Adeniyi, 17 years old, left home owing to cruel and violent treatment suffered in the hands of her stepfather. Like a roaring lion, Damilola is usually pounced upon by her stepfather whenever her mother is not home. For three months, she sought refuge in the house of a friend until she was taken to motherless children home in Ibadan, Oyo State. Narrating her experience, she said, “I ran out of home because my mum had another husband who is not my father. She had two girls for my stepfather and he kept maltreating me whenever my mum is not around. Due to this, I ran out to live with friends. I was there until police came with my mum saying that the person with whom I stayed, kidnapped me, which is totally a lie,” Adeniyi said.
Kehinde Asimiyu, 19 years, said he was compelled to leave home for the streets because his stepmother was not treating him right. Kehinde had lost his mum prompting his father to marry another woman. Kehinde’s story was wrapped around the circumstances of dysfunctional family, polygamy/polyandry. “I was on the streets helping people to carry their loads before I was picked up and taken to home for street children. My mum died and my father married another woman and I did not like the way the woman was treating me, so I left home for them. There is always lack of cooperation among the children in a family where a man marries another woman. It is bad for a man to marry more than one wife because there is bound to be problems in that family. A man should marry one woman and a woman should marry one man,” Asimiyu said.
Twenty years old, Ajiboye Sodiq escaped from home to the streets owing to increasing peer pressure in his area of residence. Born in Agbeni area of Ibadan, Sodiq abandoned home for fear that he could be consumed by pervasive acts of thuggery and violence in his area. Sodiq, who lost his dad at a young age, consequently resolved to vacate home to other parts of Ibadan to acquire vocational skills. In particular, Sodiq’s drive was fuelled by the desire to be a responsible heir that can fend for his ageing mother and young siblings. Keen on his desires, Sodiq has vowed not to return home unless he had turns out good and achieves his dreams in life. “I was picked from the streets but sent to a motherless home owing to my desire to further my education. I lost my daddy when I was young. I lived with my mum and she tried her best but because I lived in Agbeni area of Ibadan which is notorious with touts. I was tempted to join the touts but I didn’t consider that path responsible. I left because of the notorious nature of Agbeni area. There is killing of people and fighting almost on a daily basis. I do not want to return home. I believe that being the first born, I have to be responsible for the welfare of my mummy and siblings. I believe that after completing my secondary education here, God will send me a helper to enable me further my education to the university and move on from there. I just don’t want to go back home,” Ajiboye stated.
Obafunso Oreoluwa, was orphaned right from childhood having being dumped on the streets by the one who bore her. For 23 years, Oreoluwa has lived in Galilee Foundation home for street children. “I have been here (Galilee Foundation home) since childhood. I did my primary and secondary schooling here. It is not good for parents to abandon their children as they do not know what such children will become in life. I do not know my parents, however, I am encouraged by stories of orphans who have made a headway in life. At this point, I wish seek for a better life,” Obafunso said.
Damilola, Kehinde, Sodiq and Oreoluwa are only a few rescued from the streets into motherless homes out of an estimated 100 million street children around the world. In Lagos alone, over 100,000 children are living on the streets. Wasiu who has been living on the streets in Lagos since he was ten years said, “I have two sisters that I have not seen in five years. I have smoked Indian hemp like other boys of my age, got beaten by bigger boys, robbed of my money. The good thing is that I am alive. Come nightfall we retire to abandoned buildings, schools and under bridges for safety.” Though the tales of street children may differ, their circumstances are similar in Nigeria. Reasons for children taking up life on streets revolve around poor families, divorce or death of either of or both parents, parent maltreatment or neglect, children’s choice to live on the streets so as to support their families.
According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), an estimated 10.5 million children in Nigeria are out of school, with girls making up 60 percent. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a report observed that the causes of the phenomenon are family breakdown, armed conflict in nations or between nations, poverty, national and man-made disasters, famine, physical and sexual abuse, exploitation by adults, dislocation through migration, urbanization and overcrowding, disinheritance or being disowned.
For 30 years of running a non-governmental home for street children, known as Galilee foundation, its Programmes Director, Dr Gregory Eigbadon, said the most peculiar reasons for children leaving home are divorce and re-marriages, poverty, children’s stubbornness, peer influences. “Basically, the reason children leave home for the streets is dysfunctional homes. Sometimes, there is a problem between father and mother. The mother leaves the home; the father cannot cope and takes the child to their mother who is old and cannot fend for herself. And after some time, these children have to fend for themselves and the old grandmother cannot cope,” Eigbadon said. Despite counseling by its street counselors, Eigbadon noted that some children remain unwilling to leave the streets. More pathetic, according to Eigbadon, is the fact that some of the children after leaving motherless homes, return to streets. “Sometimes, the children relapse after three years and go back to the streets. It is depressing to see them return to the streets despite all one’s efforts. It could be depressing when you do not see corresponding change. At that point, one has to trust God to keep one going,” Eigbadon said.
For many orphanages/motherless homes run by non-governmental bodies, inadequate funding, especially by states and federal government remains a great challenge. According to President, Nigeria Association of Social Workers, Mr Mashood Mustapha, most state Ministries of Women Affairs, which are in charge of welfare of children and the vulnerable, are poorly funded. He, however, pointed to high poverty level and corruption as increasing the tendency and vulnerability of children to take to the streets for refuge. This is as he noted that this societal challenge continued to make children vulnerable to child labour, rape and inhuman treatment. Furthermore, Mustapha noted the need for social workers to embark on more sensitizations on the need for society to understand the menace posed by having an increased number of children on the streets and out of school.
Eigbadon also portrays the typical funding challenge facing motherless children homes thus, “Funding is the great challenge. For instance, about five of our children are to write SSCE. That will cost us close to N80,000. Sometimes, it is difficult to pay staff salaries. Sometimes, providing food; sometimes a child may need medical operation. One of our children has appendicitis which has ruptured and we needed close to a N100,000 to rescue her life. “We eat a bag of rice two or three times a day. What we spend a lot of money on is feeding. Also, is the task of transporting them to school as we have to get a bus to convey them to and fro on a daily basis. I have to get N60,000 every week to get chartered bus to take the children to school and go to market to get food items. Sometimes, the money is just not there and you can’t tell the children stories.
At the end of a particular week, we had only N15,000 and we there was no garri, no soup among other food items, and there was no fish. When they asked, I only said God will provide. As they went to the market, someone came in with a carton of fish.”
To address the outcry of inadequate funding of motherless homes by government, matron of a non-governmental organization, Christ Generation club, Mrs Olufunmilayo Amure tasked more individuals and NGOs to get more involved. “We need to make these children happy as they do not have parents to make them happy. There are some who do not come to the open to ask for assistance. Whatever can be done to help these homes should be done to help them. I advice those whom God has blessed that whatever they can do to help this home should be done because no matter the wealth they have amassed, God won’t ask them the number of houses they have built, the number of cars or children they had. But the kindness and mercy you show to others will speak for you and this is the virtue that the bible preaches that we should add value to our faith. Many persons that God has blessed should arise and help these children,” Amure said.
Similarly, a cleric, Mr Sunday Oyewo charged captains of industries and well-meaning individuals to support the welfare of the vulnerable and street children with their freewill donations. This is as said it was expedient for the federal and state governments to have it as a policy to fund motherless homes.
Meanwhile, the dreams of several rescued street children to make a head way in life remain intact. While Damilola wants to be a veterinary doctor, Sodiq wants to be a banker, Obafunso, a nurse, and Kehinde, a doctor. Adeniran Anjoba, on his part, left motherless home in 2014, after eight years, and is currently a student of the University of Ibadan, studying political science. For the years of encountering street children, Adeniran pointed to the issue is poverty and poor relationship among domestic family members as major reasons why children left their homes for the streets or other abodes. “I got to motherless children home in 2006 and left in 2014. I was found with my mother on the streets and she was busy using me to beg for alms. My mum is no more. What I heard of my mummy is that she had issues with her family and was sent away. I was just about a year old when she began to use me to beg for alms. So, all the stories I have are what I was told by the matron. I am in 200 level at the University of Ibadan, studying political science. I desire to work under government as a civil servant,” Adeniran said.
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