The Initiatives for Destitutes Empowerment and Sustainability (IDES) has on Saturday January 30, 2021, fed and provided clothes for children of scavengers mainly engaged collecting empty water sachets and other plastic wastes deposited at the Bomeh dumpsite in Kingtom.
It should be noted that people collect plastic wastes at Bomeh dumpsite amidst the stench of rotten waste, excreta, mosquitoes, and carbon mono oxide. The plastics which they gather will then be packed into giant bags which would then be weighed in Kilograms for sale. Each kilogram of the collected waste costs Le,1,000. The giant bag sewn from rags full of plastics would then been bought by an individual who would then resell them in Guinea for the manufacturing of plastic gadget like bowls, buckets, cups etc.
The Executive Director for IDES, Llewellyn Ebikule Mac-Davies, said that the Organization took up the initiative of feeding the children at Bomeh because of a video of a four-year old boy who was assisting her mother searching for sachets and other plastic containers deposited at the site.
He added that it is wrong for parents who are scavenging to involve their children in doing such a hazardous work, noting that they should discontinue such practice because most of those children ought to have been in school rather than scavenging through waste.
“The vicious cycle of scavenging that rotates among parents to children in Bomeh dumpsite should cease. We want to change the narratives of those children, so they would in turn elevate their parents from poverty. We want to put a stop on children that are scavengers,” Mac-Davies said.
Mac-Davies noted that in the future they would ensure that those children who are scavengers gained admission into schools, and would even assist them with learning materials.
“Children scavenging also have the ability to become Lawyers, Engineers and Accountants that would serve the nation,” he said.
Mac-Davies called on humanitarian organization to support them with funds and materials that would foster their initiative.
Abie Kamara, a mother of four including Abu the boy in the video, said that she had been introduced into the trade by Abu’s father in 2016. She added that she got used to the job because it is their only means of survival.
She added that Abu’s father left her in 2018, and since then she had shouldered the responsibility of caring for the children, but because of her struggle her elder sister decided to take care of Abu and two of her children with basic needs. She said that because of Abu’s video that went viral most children had benefitted from the good gesture of IDES, adding that they appreciate the gesture and hope for more.
The Initiatives for Destitutes Empowerment and Sustainability was established in 2005, but during its initial attempts to foster its aims did not have enough funds, thus causing the organization to cease its operations. It restarted operations in 2014 after it had been revived through a partnership with Prison Foundation. Since that partnership, the Organization has been active with a host of activities. It is funded through individual support by people who believe in its ideals.
By George M.O.Williams
02/02/2021. ISSUE NO: 7993