By Mamajah Jalloh
The prevailing street begging has attracted public curiosity as it has doubled over the years above imagination. From various exclusive interviews conducted amongst street beggars in the streets of Freetown, some have associated their street begging daily search to Socio-economic woes befalling their families, they say all though they are mentally and physically well to do, they have not been able to secure employment, many of these individuals are career orientated, school leavers, family heads and graduates from various educational centers in the country.
They say the most common problems they face is food, accommodation challenges, frequent health problems among family members and the ambition to continue their technical, vocational and academic education.
The other class of street beggars has a relative connection to their mind set. They are mentally and physically well to do, tidy and look determined to ask for tokens to who so ever they come by, unlike other beggars, most people who come across them blame them rather than giving them tokens, they don’t believe their stories and usually advise them to wake up and stand up firm against the challenges of the two, they could be Youths, Women, Girls or Men and few become daily victims of sex. Another suspicious dilemma among these individuals is that some are drug addicts others are Alcohol consumers few could tell stones of relative importance, interviews indicated that even if they do, they are seldom taking for serious.
The disable community investigation proves are the most favoured, they received financial bail-outs from individuals for humanitarian reasons, some are even donated with clothing’s, others received packed food from organizations and the best of their days is on religious and national festivals, Fridays and Sundays and they could easily be located in certain areas around town where they spend their days and nights. The worst is most of them are being cared for by their off-springs, mainly non-school going children usually cloth in dirty linens.
Further investigations has indicated that unlike develop countries were provisions are made for the needy irrespective of life’s temptation. In must African countries, governments are yet to find ways of addressing the problems of baggers, some have suggested the erection of accommodation centers and employment for people to take care of them, others say they could easily be convinced to learn careers and integrate them in society, others says a battle against Narcotics might be a better answer while others aver that more and more community sensitization is required especially in communities trapped in poverty.
