Lawmakers Xray ‘Street Child’ Project

Lawmakers Xray ‘Street Child’ Project

By Fiona Benson

As the issue of removing children from the streets stay remain unsolved by Gender Ministry. This situation follows pronouncement of target plan to remove over 36,000 children from the streets annually. For this reason, the House of Representatives (HoR) on Tuesday, July 15, received a communication from River Gee County District #1 Lawmaker, Alexander Poure, seeking the appearance of the Minster of Gender, Children and Social Protection to provide details on how far is the project since it was launched.Rep. Poure, in his communication, stated that the issue of children being on the streets, specifically, during school hours, is a “very grave issue.”Therefore, it has claimed the attentions of many, which according to Poure, also needs the attention of the plenary, who are the peoples’ deputy. “This is posing threats to the lives of our children populace. Some of the children may become tomorrow’s future leaders,” said Rep. Poure.

“In 2024, the ministry claimed it had launched the street child project, which was expected to take over 36,000 children off the streets.

This was catalogued in the ministry’s developed roadmap for the children streets’ situation, and mobilized resources for intervention as key objectives for 2025.

It was then that the legislature allocated US $500,000 for the project implementation in the national budget, “but yet, we are to see any outcome due to the continues influx of children onto the streets, especially during school hours,” Rep. Poure.He however said, it is against this backdrop Poure has decided to bring the situation to plenary attention the concerns of many parents. “As the peoples’ deputies, there is the need that we invite the Minister of Gender to provide the needed information on the roadmap developed on the intervention for streets children, the kind of resources mobilized for the intervention, and sources of mobilization. This should exclude government’s progress report on intervention made covering the number of the children captured; kind of intervention made; status of government budget allocated, and the location of children captured, taking into consideration the county of origin.”

With the communication being proffered by Rep. Poure, a decision was made, and the communication to the committee on gender to report after the lawmakers’ break.