Minister of Youth, Sport and Child Development, Emmanuel Mulenga says the Zambia National Services has finished rehabilitating its centres designated to accommodate street kids.
Mr. Mulenga confirmed in an interview with ZANIS in Ndola today that this follows a Memorandum of Understanding which his ministry signed with ZNS on the 15th of August this year aimed at rehabilitating street kids.
Mr. Mulenga said now that ZNS has completed the rehabilitation of its centres, his ministry working with other stakeholders will swing into action and ensure that no child remains on the street.
He said the earlier nationwide exercise to remove children from the street failed because of minor grey areas that have since been identified.
“We will remove all the kids from all the streets of Zambia and take them to national service so that they can be tutored accordingly so that they can learn survival skills,” Mr. Mulenga said.
The Minister said the government has a lot of confidence in ZNS hence identifying the institution as a reliable partner in ending streetism and ensuring that the minds of street kids are fully transformed.
Mr. Mulenga said he wants to see a situation where young people will not depend on drugs and other harmful substances for their survival but on sustainable life survival skills.
And Ndola District Child Protection Committee Vice Chairperson, Patrick Muntanga has bemoaned the increasing number of children on the streets.
Mr. Muntanga said there is need to increase budgetary allocation towards children on the street who are not even many to manage.
“There has been no specific budgetary allocation to address this need. If there has been in instances, it’s just to mobilize them and then they are out of the streets like what happened a few months ago,” Mr. Muntanga said.
National Service is the best place for street kids to learn skills and to change their lives when they come back they will be useful citizens who can contribute to the economy of the nation.
Better this time they introduce more skills including arts skills, trade skills, football , music and many more others and this will create employment even for their mentors.
One thing our people must know is that people are : as individuals are different and with different talents which needs to be identified in every child right from young age.
I mean you cannot force things which some children do not have the talent to do but give them chance express themselves enough.
When you do you will be surprised how they put themselves into groups that matter to them.
Good move, but, please don’t be too hard on them. Adjusting to a structured lifestyle will be difficult – they will need a lot of support & patience.
‘We will remove all the kids from all the streets of Zambia and take them to national service so that they can be tutored accordingly so that they can learn survival skills.’
They have survived all these years. They could teach the minister a thing or two about how to survive on one meal a week, how to survive with lice, no hot bath, and on glue sniffing.
This is just talk. No exact time line and a credible plan
Have you ever wondered that most street kids belong to a certain group in Zambia???
Months ago there was an article that was published here about street kids. We as government got a lot rubblsh from upnd diasporans claiming we had failed street kids. I told them that us we are action based rather than mouth based. Now let me ask them and upnd what have they done to help these kids? Us you can see our actions
Very good initiative. This is real ubuntu. Necessary action which speaks louder than words.
So ZNS teaches skills. How are retired ZNS personnel doing with the skills they got when they were in service?