Giving begging children money endangers them - ACDP

By Ilhaam Hoosain
12 October 2007

The Minister of Social Development has been called on by the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) to consider an urgent campaign to encourage the public to find other ways to help children who are begging on the streets and not to give them money, which the party says could endanger them.

“We have an enormous amount of children begging on our streets, they are either there on their own initiative or lured by the promise of money or because adults are taking advantage of them and profiting from their begging,” says the ACDP’s Cheryllyn Dudley.

Children are sometimes placed on the streets by an adult to profit from their begging. Those who are there by choice are attracted by the money which is usually spent on drugs or alcohol.

Street children are open to sexual abuse as well as violence. Speeding traffic and being open to the weather is also a danger.

Children being on the street to work is against the provisions of social welfare, which is to move children to a place of safety and provision.

“We will be asking the Minister of Social Development to urgently implement this campaign,” says Dudley.