Street Children

Dressed in rags torn to shreds and with faces covered in dirt and soot, they walk the winding pathways of asphalt. They spend their days baking under the sun’s scorching rays or drudge in the endless assault of rain and wind, their bare feet being tortured by an unforgiving environment. As their hungry stomachs rumble, they sleep away their nights, blanketed with dreams of wealth and comfort while being watched by a seemingly desolate moon.

They are the street children. While some of them knock on peoples’ cars, hunting for alms amongst Manila’s busy intersections, others try to earn their daily bread selling everything from sampaguita (garlands of flowers that act as a natural air freshener for cars) to cigarettes. There are even those who prefer the meager, and sometimes shameful, incomes procured from illegal trades such as prostitution and drug trafficking. And there are those who turn to crime or the empty lures of drug addiction.

For the middle to upper classes, these children are usually viewed with both ends of the spectrum in mind. For some, they are youngsters who deserve the help and love that others can render for them, youngsters who need equal opportunities to work for a better future. But for others, they can be mere street urchins, human trash who should be locked up and kept out of sight or abused to bring in more money for already wealthy employers.

A number of ways have been tried, both by the government and the private sector, to help solve the problem of the growing number of street children. Free public education, outreach programs, and community service centers have all done their part to help alleviate the suffering that so many youngsters undergo. They have done what they can to give these children hope for a brighter tomorrow.

But the simple truth remains. There are still so many who roam the streets like animals living in an urban jungle. For most of them, violence has become the law of life. Their code is survival, a code they carry in their minds as they do what they can to survive. It doesn’t matter who gets killed along the way. We got to live.

Abandoned by their parents. Forced to beg. Pushed to work. Abused by others. Forsaken by the rest. A lot has been written about Manila’s street children. But to truly understand what these kids go through and what their lifestyle is all about, books, newspapers or magazines are simply not enough. Nor are the many beggars and vendors that roam the busy streets and intersections within the city sufficient to bring about the truth.

A person has to experience what it is like to be one of them. A person must enter their world and interact with them. It doesn’t need to be a long interaction. A brief sequence of moments will do.

Put up fund raisers. Give. Donate. A lot has also been written about how to help these children. But more than material wealth lies the beauty of the human person. To show a child on the street that he is valued as a human being and that others still care for him will do more. A penny would nourish his body. A touch and a smile would nourish his soul.