Some residents at Madina Zongo Junction in the Greater Accra region have appealed the Department of Social Welfare to take custody of child street beggars in the area to shield them from contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19)
According to them, the child beggars in the company of some elderly women believed to be their guardians have re-emerged in larger numbers after the lockdown and were not observing the COVID-19 safety protocols.
“They are often seen gathered at the same place not observing the social distance directive and without nose masks,” they added.
These children, the residents told the Ghanaian Times, also adopted numerous tricks including hanging on doors and windows of moving vehicles to win the sympathy of motorists thus exposing them to bodily harm.
Investigations conducted by the Ghanaian Times also revealed that the children who have never had any formal education had to rely on stipends made from the street to feed themselves and the rest given to their guardians.
HajiaFatia who sells cooked food at the Zongo Junction said the re-emergence of the children and their nannies would defeat the governments’ fight against the spread of the disease and called for their early confinement.
The children whom she believed comes from Kaneshie and its environs at times spend days sleeping on the pavement at the Zongo Junction and only go home on Sundays.
Madam Fatia stated that as the numbers increase day-in –day out any outbreak could be disastrous to the whole group.
One of the boys known as Abu, aged nine said he does not know his father and was staying with his mother at Agbogbloshie who is also physically challenged.
He said he usually comes with his aged grandmother to beg for alms for survival claiming he had heard of the virus but does not actually know what it was about.
His grandmother who only gave her name as Habiba said they have no other means of survival and urged the reporter to leave them alone because if they die Allah was ready to receive them in their rags.
LAWRENCE VOMAFA- AKPALU