Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? - Family (5) - Nairaland
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| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Slogan13(m): 11:26am On Sep 01, 2011 |
Who said this is not child abuse? Do you call this work or helping the family? Look at there beautiful faces and you will see sadness. This kids are suffering and I feel so sad for them and so angry with their weak and lazy parents that would have built a better future for them. They should be in school not in the streets. If you know you can't afford or feed what God has giving you,stop having kids you can't take care of.If I am a political office holder,the parents of this kids will be in jail right now. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Outstrip(f): 12:43pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
rabzy:GOd bless your mom rabzy. If you don't mind my asking what did your dad do after he lost his ob. You talk about wha your mom and siblings do but nothing about what yur father did |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 1:43pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Child abuse at the highest order . . . . . |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by armyofone(m): 2:22pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Child abuse Big Time. if you dig deeper, you will be surprise at how many brothers and sisters they have. Stop Making kids Hawk. the heavy ware could stump their growth sef. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 2:48pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Outstrip: Most men are brittle materials, they can take shocks but they break suddenly without notice, most women are ductile, they keep on taking all the pressures, the weights, the loads, you see the signs of the stress all over them, they look older, their skins get pale, they get thinner and thinner and haggard, but they Hardly Break. My dad was a blue collar worker, he worked for crown cork, one of their Bosses went away with their Udoji award, so he did not get his share, later they were retrenched. The money he saved up till then, he used it to buy a bus on higher purchase to use for interstate travels. In one of his Journey he had an accident - i was just some months old then - the bus was a wreck and he still had to pay back the loan. He was unemployed for many years and sometimes he gets to be a driver for one Oga or the other before he is sacked or it becomes more expensive to go work than to stay at home. He worked at different times as a driver to different people but the salary could not feed us nor pay our school fees. As at 2004/2005 when we were like 4 kids in the University, he was earning 8000 naira driving one politician. That was the time i was selling all kinds of stuff in school and also doing holiday jobs. My younger brothers and sisters were also schooling and hawking at home. Mothers are so tuned to surviving than fathers, they could do myriads of things to survive, while most men know just one or two ways and when those doors are closed, they are defeated, become cranky and sometimes become drunks. There was a day my immediate elder sister came home from school, she just graduated from yabatech, as the second best student from her class and she just took my mom's wares and went hawking even though my mom tried to stop her. On the way she met one of her secondary school mates, a guy, who was also a prefect - she was the senior prefect and also finished with the best result - , the guy saw her and called her and they sat outside gisting about school, higher institution etc as if she came on a visit, the guy even bought her malt and after she finished, he helped her carry the stuff and she went on her way hawking. She was not embarassed, she was not ashamed, we still talk about those 'good' old days and laugh about it all. But we are grateful we survived it all and we rode it mostly on our mother's back. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Outstrip(f): 2:53pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
African mothers are the best. What can I say |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by armyofone(m): 2:56pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Rabzy, your story is touching, God bless you. my wish for our 21st century Nigeria is that pple have few kids, it make things a bit easier. looking at the pix on front page, i think the kids are likely to be age 5. so young to carry tray on their head and hawk. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by tpia5: 2:58pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
bless you, @ rabzy. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 3:23pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
armyofone: There is little those kids can bring home to the family and they are way too young. But in our villages some these kids just carry those stuff to deliver to their mother's customers down the road or in the next street. I have not seen kids this small hawking in the streets of Lagos except accompanied by older siblings, and most times they just want to tag along and they cry if you don't take them. So their parents just put a miniature tray on their head ask them to follow their older siblings. In some rural areas too, schools are so far away and ill-kept with no purpose in the teaching that it would equally be child abuse to send kids to such schools. In Nigeria the fact is, its not all school age kids that their parents can afford to send to school, its not all kids that are interested in going to school and its not all places that schools are accessible. i once had a family friend whose first son was always repeating classes and failing while his younger brother had passed him and was two years his senior. The father eventually asked him what he wants to do and the guy said he wants to be an 'eleran', a butcher. He dropped out of primary school and became a butcher. Before he graduated as a butcher or become independent, he had to hawk meat on the streets for his master, initially his master would be with him but later he was doing it himself. By the time he was 17, he was already an accomplished butcher. He could handle a cow and butcher it in minutes and that is what he lives on now. He already had a family long before i could think of talking to a girl. Yeah, i believe we should all try as much as possible to reduce the number of kids we have. The government must have a policy of enlightenment and the campaign must be sustained. What shocks me most is that after seeing the struggle my parents did to raise us, my uncles also had numerous kids, the average was 7. My parents only had their standard 6 education, but all my uncles on both sides had more than that and they still were having 7, 8 kids. Though they are not doing badly, their kids did not hawk like we did, they have built their own small house unlike us, but its a risk am not willing to take. Anything can happen in this country, there are no guarantees in this life. Just two days ago, i heard its like one of my uncles has been retrenched, in one of the airline servicing companies, though we have not confirmed it, he was their quality control manager and he was doing quite well financially, but what happens now and he still has little kids. Those ones can't even hawk if push comes to shove because they have lived a sheltered life. Its wrong for the first child or the first kids to be working and taking care of their parents and also fending for the last ones. Its energy sapping and you can hardly plan your own life. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 3:27pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Rabzy . . . . Thanks for that great and touching story, but there is a difference in what you just narrated, i love the part where you said, your Mom tried to stop her . . The case of those 5 years old kids, that is all they know and at least you Dad did all he could do to give you something and a life, but most other parents, just assume that they have given birth to those kids and they have done their job, and now the kids owe them, and it is not like that . . . . |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 3:52pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Fhemmmy: I totally disagree with sending Kids this young to hawk on the streets, it serves no great material benefit, they would most likely lose most of the money they make on the way like i did a couple of times, or an adult would con them out of the money. That is why i said they might be making a delivering down the road to someone their parents know, in a village setting, all the villagers know the kids and the kids parents and they would most probably be selling to known people around the house. You can hardly see a parent send kids that young to sell on the streets in a big city, the issue of 'gbomogbomo' was very common at least in lagos and mothers were always careful and scared. As a general rule younger kids accompany their older siblings at least to learn to the ropes and also for safety concerns. I grew up in places were almost all parents had to make their kids sell stuff for them, and i can honestly say that it is always like that, they don't just give birth and assume they have done their part and their kids owe them and so subject them to harsh child labor, for the most part its not like that, and some who did is not because they don't just love their kids, some are brought up that way too, some are immature parents and clueless about parenting, business and so become bitter towards everyone. The general mentality and behavior is that, they have given birth to their kids, they have to help them to succeed in life, either thru school or business or a combination of everything and when the kids are older and successful, they would be now taken care of by their grown children. And in a culture where there are no special welfare programs for adults historically and by the stinking governments, then it is not a bad idea to have such an idea. In fact that is the only way our aged ones in the society have surviving. I won't begrudge any parents that expects their mature and working children to take care of them. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 4:11pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Fhemmmy: Yeah, lol, my mom tried to stop her because she felt my sister was too big to sell by then, she was already a pretty grown-up lady. But my sister would not have it because nobody was buying stuff at home, my mom was falling sick for trekking long distances hawking. She hawks all the way from Orile agege to ogba, berger, agidingbi ikeja, alausa, so my sister insisted she would go or the wares would get spoilt and we would lose money and also we would have to eat them ourselves because nobody would be willing to them after a day or two and we can't just throw them away. When i came back from school one day and i heard how far she was going, i had to tell our last born (he was already a teenager), who was doing 'baby of the house' and refused to hawk that he has to do start hawking properly now. Though soon afterwards my eldest sister got a Job and the pressure eased off and then we totally stopped selling anything. We had sold too many things to count ' bread, groundnut, igba, soap, yam, plantain, beans, cooked food, gala, meat pie, donkua, salt, etc. Now the only business we let her help us with is to join my younger brothers take care of our foreign breed dogs. She loves dogs and when we sell the puppies she also gets a cut  |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by tpia5: 4:32pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
^^touching story. i'm really not sure what alternatives there are, in a bad economy and people have to feed. child hawking isnt an ideal situation but it made a lot of people what they are today. i think an alternative is animal or regular farming, but sometimes its hard getting land for the latter, which is also capital intensive and doesnt immediately yield cash. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 4:45pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
^^^The dog breeding business was just the idea of my younger brother, he is doing part-time studies with NOUN. So we just gave him money to fund it and since he is still at home with my parents, they are helping him with it. For my parents am considering fish farming for them, i have been in touch with the people in the industry and have also attended seminars and downloaded materials. I just want to get some money to start it for them and teach them how to do it. My dad has already been to some fish farms and he is eager to start also. Though they don't have to work now because we send them monthly wages, but they don't like been idle, and we all prefer the idea that they could also earn money on their own without waiting on anyone. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 4:51pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
rabzy: See the effort that you mother has went through and seeing all that, it made your grown up sister to wanna help and do something, that is nice and different, but for a young kid that ought to be in school, it is wrong. Also, i am sure that your Mom would have made sure your sister never did that, if it was during school hours . . . . . Also, I can bet almost anything that if you were born into that poverty, your parents would not have had 4 kids, cos you have said enough for us to know they are people with feelings and reasonable great people. But what do you say about the parents that will send kids hawking and stay home making more babies . . . that is lunacy |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 4:52pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
rabzy . . .mail me and we could talk . . . Femmmy.moto@gmail.com . . . . It takes a great mind to be able to say all you have said . . . . . God bless |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 5:22pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Fhemmmy: Yeah i know that, we never hawked during school hours and my parents valued education so much, it was just that my grandparents did not a priority for my grandparents. i am not holding brief for any negligent parents, i hate negligent parenting and i have seen some. But also our own situation was still far better than the circumstances of some. Some parents grew up in environment where education was seen as a waste of time. The picture that started all these, i don't know where it was taken, i don't know the circumstances, there are many places in Nigeria where the school is not worth going to, there are many places where there are no schools for miles, there many kids in Nigeria who are not interested in schooling. What options do those school age kids have or their parents. Like i said there was a friend of mine who would rather be a butcher than go to school. He was consistently failing in primary school. Enlightenment is something many people are not privilege to have, many people were brought up with the idea that children are gifts from God and he who gave them will help you to take care of them, While i was delaying my wedding plans because of financial constraints, many people were telling me i should not worry too much, that God blesses marriages, that i would just see things improving once i get married. I am a Christian and i strongly believe in God, But i also know the Jesus said no one starts building a house without costing it first. People in remote places even in our cities, see childbirth as a natural thing that comes and you don't have to control it, some who use some form of control, when they start see some side effects, they just abandon it. How many villages have access to basic health care, let alone birth control measures and knowledge. There was a day i was in my school hall Fajuyi in OAU, and a cleaner in the hall was dancing seriously and singing ayefela, awa ma bimo lemo lemo, gbam,gbam, gbam, gbam, gbam,i.e the songs says ' we would be having kids, gbam, gbam, gbam,gbam,gbam, each gbam is suppose to be a child being born, when we asked whats happening, she said one of them had just given birth and they are all happy and every year this should be happening, I told her its bad to be having Kids every year and having numerous kids, but she said know that it is a woman's Joy and heritage to do so. She kept on dancing and we left. The culture and mentality is that it is okay to have many kids, so its not a case of these parents being wicked or callous. We need a cultural re-orientation and its going to take a while before it sinks in all over the country. Just imagine even vaccination is not allowed for some kids by their parentsin some places, female genital mutilation is still strong in other places mostly due to ignorance and deeply entrenched beliefs in traditions. Is it all these people that would be concerned about child control when other more heinous and harmful practices are still going on. Its painful but its the harsh reality, its going to take a while before these practices go away, and like i said there are some that becomes necessary |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 5:22pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Fhemmmy: Thanks no problem, i would holla you. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 5:38pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
rabzy: Let us even for one second assume that the schools are not good enough for those kids to attend or go to, then, the parents could still be the one to go and do the hawking, mind you the reason why i am so objecting to this, is the age of those kids in those pix, cos those kids cant be older than 6 years or 7 at most. Such kids should not be the one to be providing for the home, no matter what the situation is . . . . And in Nigeria, most of the kids that do the hawking, no one with them, and they could be kidnapped or even rapped, i am sure we have all heard stories of such happening. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 5:59pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
^^^^^ I totally agree, those kids would lose money the money faster than they can sell their goods. Its so easy for someone to get confused while hawking. sometimes when i get home and we want to do the accounting, i just find out that i cant balance my accounts, i have lost some money somehow. i don't know why the girls were always better in getting their figures right, they hardly ever fail to balance up, but for me the case is different. My mom always have a one-kind look when she wants to do mine, and am always clueless as to how it got missing. One of the most painful scenes i see is when Kids sell in traffic and then they sell pure water that in all does not amount to 100 Naira. Parents should not allow that, the risk are too great, there is the danger of death every second. When i gained admission into the University, before resumption, a friend introduced me to selling of daily newspapers. I had a stand in U-turn bus-stop along Lagos-Abeokuta expressway and occasionally i have to run after cars to give them their papers, but to sell in the midst of traffic is something i would never try. I salute those guys that do it, but its damn too risky, then for me to see kids doing it, no its just too much to handle. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Outstrip(f): 7:32pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
rabzy: That is just beyond crazy to me. I even cry when I see adults run after buses to get their money and those wicked bus drivers don't slow down. Imagine children. How they even survive it is unbelievable. How can someone put their beloved child in such a situation. You don't need enlightenment to know that that is not right. All you need in a consciense and common sense |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 7:50pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Outstrip: Just imagining that scene makes me wanna cry . . . I really pray that God bless us to make sure no child will have to go through that . . . i honestly thing that we have failed the children |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by OnyeOzi1: 9:11pm On Sep 01, 2011 |
Ah ah these girls are too tender to Hawk now, why some parents are heartless self  ? |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by kandiikane(m): 1:35am On Sep 02, 2011 |
Yes its child labour . . . . .so what are we collectively going to do about it to make a difference? I ask myself the same thing. . |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by kandiikane(m): 2:06am On Sep 02, 2011 |
Fine as a parent it is your duty to bring up these children and provide for them but my point is how can you provide when there is nothing to provide and the only means of providing is to do this? You said that if parents cannot bring up children they should not have children and I asked how easy is it for women to have family planning? How does the government support these parents if they know they cannot take care of any children. . Someone mentioned that these children are children of illiterates and children of single parents which I have mentioned and people living in poverty plus we should not forget that these children might possibly be orphans living with family members or people who cannot afford to take care of them and their only possible means of survival is this. Someone also mentioned that it is laughable to think that these children's parents are home lazying off while their children are providing which is true because it's not necessarily the case. How can illiterates possibly know what condoms are or birth controls? When in deep poverty, people would work as a unit(the whole) to provide for the family and I also believe that these children are not just being left on their own to hawk in the streets the likelihood is that they are in a market place with older members. I have seen young teenagers hawk in the streets on their own but many choose to do that because that is the only way they can buy food to eat each day. I do not approve of this but we have to understand that in poverty these sort of things will happen unless the government finds a way to help it's people. The government needs to give every woman or couple an access to family planning where they can be be educated on how to plan parenthood. There are thousands of promiscuous young people who get pregnant and not been abled to take care of their children, family planning should made for everyone. There are women who are been violated everyday in Africa but because of our mentality abortion is illegal in many parts and you talk of planning parenthood? How can you plan parenthood when you are not given a choice. You say planning parenthood but if a pregnant violation victim does not want to have the child many will say "abomination" but still abandon the woman or see her as an outcast. There is so much work that needs to be done and this has to start from the top. Take the riots that happened in the UK, many blame the government but I blame the useless parents that did not bring their children up right. The past government has given this youths and their parents every thing they need, free everything. I understand that the new government made changes that affected some people but why should cutting EMA's affect you? Why would you get paid for education? Is education not for your benefit? It's a disgrace. They talk of how hard it is but what about other children in other places? Having no place to sleep? Food to eat? See, here I blame the parents but for Africa I cannot blame the parents when the government has not stepped to do anything about everything. Many are sat behind screens type-screaming "child abuse, child abuse" but I want to know, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Theblessed(f): 3:37am On Sep 02, 2011 |
danjohn: [b][size=16pt]Yeah, everything must be blamed on Goodluck Jonathan - no be so?? Na Goodluck Jonathan made these babies, abi.  Instead of blaming irresponsible parents for having more than they can chew - having more children than they can feed/clothe/educate thus risking the lives of their young babies in the streets as they scanvage for their daily bread - go on, blame it on Jonathan!!  Imagine, things are already hard for these parents now, that the kids are only under 5yrs old and are yet to started proper school - just wait for it! Kids are born and left to get on with whatever life throws at them as if they begged, to be born? Time will tell, as some would end up in prostitution and perhaps their brothers, in armed robbery (intimidating and stealing from innocent people, what they worked hard for) in order to survive - now tell me how beautiful, that is!! These parents have certainly, done a beautiful job of their children for society, eh? The role of a father is to provide and protect his children. Now tell me, in your eyes, how are these little girls protected in these wild streets full of criminals and paedophiles, who could be secretly touching, feeling and even r a p i n g them at the back-yards of their stores, sheds and houses without anyone knowing or even the kids telling their parents for the fear of being victimised again? It seems no one is seriously using their upstairs here. Think people, think - this is evil!!  [/size][/b] |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Nobody: 6:38am On Sep 02, 2011 |
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| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by rabzy: 7:03am On Sep 02, 2011 |
Theblessed: These kids are too young to be on the streets trading, but like i said they might just be delivering these items to a neighbor down the street, or trading just around the house. As to teenagers trading or young children trading not toddlers like these, if a parent is faced with the ever present danger of starving and the children falling sick and dying, and the chance of earning extra income but with the possibility of a pervert taking advantage of them. The choice is not difficult to choose, survival first all other things come secondary. |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by ebonybaba: 2:34pm On Sep 02, 2011 |
this is serious issued, where r will goin in Nigeria its because of moni or WHAT? |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by eewule(m): 2:55pm On Sep 02, 2011 |
THESE CHILDREN CANT REALLY BE TRADERS THIS PHOTO IS JUST FOR SHOW. BECAUSE THERE IS A LEVEL OF MATHEMATICS SKILL REQUIRED TO SELL ITEMS AND GIVE CHANGE ($N£) AND THESE KIDS CANT POSSIBLY KNOW HOW |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by Fhemmmy: 4:17pm On Sep 02, 2011 |
eewule: Nigerian kids? Dont be too sure . . . |
| Re: Picture Of Young Children Hawking Moin-Moin: Child Abuse? by iaabc(f): 4:21pm On Sep 02, 2011 |
@eewule, you would be surprised. There are kids like these on the streets of lagos hawking. Its really a bad situation but one that may continue for a long time due to all the various problems in our society that have been highlighted, but really its a sad thing. |
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