Gaza- Basma M. Al-Kashif
Who has not seen that child who is wandering in Gaza streets to sell gum, cigarettes, biscuits, and batteries, etc.) in order to help their struggling families. Work is not a fault whatever, but Where Is Childhood and Child-Rights Institutions ??!
Ali Mohammed, 14, has worked on Omar Mukhtar street, specifically in the park of Unknown Soldier, for three years, selling tea and coffee to drivers and pedestrians.
"This has been my work for the past three years," he says.
"I started to work in order to pay for the family living as my father is dead and my mother suffers from a chronic disease" Ali says with his voice full of sorrow.
"We are four orphans and three of us already work."
Rami Said, 10, rushes from school to his home, takes a quick meal before rushing back to Omar Mukhtar street to peddle gum for the rest of the day.
"I have to exploit every minute in order to help my poor family,” Rami said, as he roams the crowd Gaza street with his gum box.
This has been the everyday schedule for the Gazan child, particularly in the summer holiday, when he is more out in the streets to bring few shekels to his family.
Rami admits that he sometimes wishes to have more fun during the vacations as children in the world, but he knows well this option is not available, because he used to help his low-income family.
“We are eight brothers and sisters and our unemployed father won’t be able to afford the school kits at the beginning of the school year,” he says.
In a nearby street, wanders Nemr Ahmad. The 12-year-old spends his day collecting plastic and aluminum wastes from the streets in order to sell them at the day in exchange for 5-6 shekels.
Ahmed Al-Kord, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in Gaza said earlier: "According to the Palestinian law, children from 15 to 18 can’t work except under strict conditions that guarantee their dignity and freedom,".
However, a recent report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), showed that seven percent of children in the Palestinian territories, where 52 per cent of the population are under the age of 18, are now working.
This phenomenon has increased these days because of the widespread unemployment among Gaza fathers who spend most of their times at home, particularly after the Israeli oppressive siege which imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
O people, organizations and governments that concerned with children's affairs, you should take into consideration and have borne the responsibilities to treat this painful phenomenon in the Gaza Strip.
