Street children have grown up

One may not recognize them while driving around the town or trying to find a car parking station. Most of the young men who are looking after people’s cars in exchange of a little sum of money, are the ones who used to be street children who are now adults. They have grown up. What has happened to them? – By Joanna Nganda

Dusabe Nduwimana, a street grown up aged 20. “I have been in the streets of Bujumbura for over 6 years; and now I don’t want to live like this anymore. When I came I was very young and thought the city will give me better living conditions and job opportunities” ©Iwacu

Dusabe Nduwimana is one of many other young men who grew up in the street. He is 20 years old although he could easily look 30. Dusabe’s life has not been easy, most of his past can be seen on his arms and legs, carved for good; later he says that they are scars some battles left on his body.
“My mother passed away when I was very young, and shortly after my father remarried. My stepmother did not take care of me; in fact she even used to beat me seriously even if I was sick. If my mother hadn’t passed away, I would never have been a street child”, Dusabe says.

When Dusabe was 12, he ran away from home because of bad relationships he had with his stepmother. With a few other boys, he left Kanyaru his hometown to Kayanza and next to Gitega “when we were at Gitega, it took some time for us to get used to the city-like environment, we spent few months over there before heading to Kigali where we heard life would be better,” Dusabe remembers. But Kigali was a bad experience to him and 6 months later he crossed the border back to Burundi; his journey finally ended up in Bujumbura. He was 14 and dreaming about easy life, money and freedom “I have been in the streets of Bujumbura for over 6 years; and now I don’t want to live like this anymore. When I came I was very young and thought the city would give me better living conditions and job opportunities”.

Dusabe says life in the street is not easy “I guard parked cars and the owners give me how much they want and they don’t sometimes pay me at all. At night, I sleep on the flat roof of a travel agency. When we get enough money we go to Bwiza to eat a decent meal; otherwise, we look for food in dustbins, the main reason why I always get sick. I often get intestinal worms, and if it’s not that I have malaria. When we fall sick we have no one to take care of us, I only count on some friends who can bring me clean water and for the rest it’s God’s will.”

Dusabe says that street children are used to crossing borders, often thinking that the bigger the city the better their lifestyle would be. “My older brother is working in Kenya, but when he first arrived there he was a street child just like me and now he has a job. He came back to take me with him last year but I was too sick to follow him as I had Kwashiorkor. He gave me money and left. I don’t know when I am going to see him again,” he also points out.

When asked why he doesn’t go back home, Dusabe gives one reason: “because of money. We don’t get enough money to go back home. The little we get we use it to eat, which is the reason why saving enough money to buy a simple bus ticket can take years. Some of us don’t even remember where we came from because we were very young when we arrived, or they don’t know if our families are still alive or moved somewhere else.”
The only hope for Dusabe and the other street children grownups is the help of a Good Samaritan “But it’s hard, we don’t look like small children anymore and people don’t have any pity or compassion towards us. They think we are all drug addicts. I want to go back home, there’s no future in the street.”

When Dusabe is asked what he needs to start his life again, he answers sober mindedly “I am older now, and even though I didn’t go to school, I am intelligent enough to know that I will not become a big boss.” Dusabe laughs before adding more seriously “If I get enough money, like 100,000 francs, I would be able to go back home and start a business. I want to be like those street vendors you see on the way to Rwanda when you are travelling on the bus. They make enough money to live decently, they even get married. But 100,000 francs are a big sum of money, now I only wish to have some clothes to put on.”

Dusabe says that going back home is the main topic of discussion among street children grownups; they also talk about interesting stories about their friends who succeeded at home. From a street child to a street vendor, Dusabe sees a big difference: his own business offering him a span of opportunities for a secured future, and a home where to get back after a long day of working hard.

Aimable Barandagiye, Chairman of FENADEB“[…] there is nothing good in the street for a homeless child.” ©Iwacu