Street children are usually left to fend for themselves. With no one to look after them, they often have to do odd jobs to get the meal of the day, beg or steal in order to eat. Sometimes they go for days on end without having anything to eat. At night, these poor children sleep outside, cold and hungry. Street children are often discriminated against and marginalised within our communities by people who do not care to know the reasons for their current condition; this attitude makes them more vulnerable and considerably lowers their self-esteem.
However, their situation never leaves anyone totally unmoved: we ourselves have been deeply touched… So on Saturday 27 January 2024, more than forty homeless children from the Domayo neighbourhood in the town of Maroua, CAMEROON, were treated to a decent meal at the Djarma crossroads. It was a day like no other for them: each received a hot meal, a bottle of fruit juice and a bag of popcorn. They themselves prayed to the Lord to bless the meal and expressed their joy.
We have found that it is right and good to do things to make them feel valued, such as offering them a meal, clothes, fraternal or psychological support, etc. These small gestures of consideration and love, carried out on an ongoing basis, can give them a renewed taste for life, and inspire in them the desire to move beyond this situation and become people who, in turn, will give of themselves for others.
So it is that we ourselves, while praying for those who are in misfortune, never cease to give thanks for all those who, in whatever way, help us to give, so that we can tirelessly turn towards those in need.
Marcelline Itetshi, FSE, Galdima community, Maroua-CAMEROON.
Published on 14 February 2024
