‘Don’t give street kids handouts’

Blantyre City Council, and Yohane Banda Foundation have asked city residents to stop giving street kids handouts.

City mayor Wild Ndipo said this on Saturday on the sidelines of a march to discourage residents from handing out money to street kids.  

He said the council receives numerous complaints regarding the conduct of street kids.

Said Ndipo: “When street children grow, some of them turn into criminals.

“So, stopping people from giving street kids handouts is not punishing them, but helping them to have a better future.”

Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati joined the big walk from Mpingwe Sports Club in Mpingwe to Mapanga.

She asked parents not to send their children to beg in the streets.

“We cannot educate and protect children when they spend their time in the streets begging for alms,” she said.

Yohane Banda, who walked from Mpingwe in Blantyre to Zomba to raise K3 million for the initiative to remove street kids.

He said: “We need  collective efforts to ensure that children are out of the streets.

“I want to ensure that the same kids who are called criminals should be given chance to acquire some skills to become better Malawians.”