NCJ Number
192122
Journal
Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2000 Pages: 29-34
Date Published
January 2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes the toll that street begging and vagrancy take on the children of the dispossessed in Nigeria, based on field notes from a study of one homeless family.
Abstract
Ten-year-old Ada is the older of two sisters; her younger sister is 8 years old. Ada, her mother, and sister beg on the streets of Aba, a teeming commercial city in southeastern Nigeria. Ada does not remember her father; she was about 4 years old when he died back in their village. Ada's family spends the nights at the corridors in an old colonial office building close to where the family begs during the day. They put plastic sheets on the concrete floor and use their spare clothes and rags as pillows. Before the sun rises, Ada and her sister draw water from a nearby public pump into a plastic bucket, which they use to bathe; more water is drawn for their mother's use. They must be dressed, packed, and gone from their night shelter before seven o'clock; they will not be allowed to return to the building at night if workers come while they are still in the building. They regularly beg for money and material goods at strategic spots in the city. If business has been good, they buy enough food for all family members. They beg until dark, and then they return to their sleeping quarters in the corridor. This article pays tribute to the dignity, the courage, and the strength with which children like Ada manage to confront the terrifying problems that are a daily part of their efforts to survive. 3 references