Opinion: “A child of none, a child of all”

Photo credit: UNICEF

It might interest you to know that there are children, innocent young children, who have no a shelter over their heads, no food to eat, no (good) clothes to cover their dry skins, no toys to play with and no place to call their homes. For some, no father or mother to provide for them or show them the love every child deserves.

There are those whose bed spaces are wherever the night meets them; they go about begging for alms to survive and consequently exposed to all sorts of risks, hardship, starvation, extreme conditions et al.

Undisputedly, we didn’t give birth to them and as such, most of us mightbe tempted to think we owe them nothing. We are likely to look the otherway and blame their misguided or/and unfortunate parents for bringing them to earth to subject them to these pitiable and peasant life. We might not have been responsible for their fate but we can do something to help or provide remedy for their situation.

We can, and we should help them for the future depends on what we make of the present. Your child might grow up to be a responsible man or woman that you trained him to be but his or her life is exposed to the risk of been prematurely brought to an end by that drunkdriver, that armed robber, that rapist, criminal, prostitute or rogue, that ‘street child’ whose childhood was stolen, who had little or no attention, who never felt what it is to be loved and catered for. That abandoned child who was left to grow up all alone; consequently picking up all the vices he/she came in contact with.

This is a clarion call to help a child today, save a soul. We just can’t turn away and hope that someone someway will make things right. There’s alot we could do together. We could teach, feed, love, educate, enlighten,and cater for them. We could get them off the streets and give them a better life, a purposeful future and an opportunity to be prosperous.

It is the inactiveness of those who should have acted, the nonchalance of those who knew better, the absence of the voice of wisdom that has made it possible for things to go wrong all this while.

‘What affects the eyes, affects the nose’.

– Chinua Achebe.

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@El_Darlington on twitter

Comments (3)

  1. It is a very touching article. The world, especially Nigeria would be a better place to live for all the less privileged children, if we can all practice it.

  2. Awww I'm so touched my this. The issue I have is being able to differentiate between the genuine child in need and the other who begs while his parents are on the other side watching. I guess in a way they both NEED something. I do my bit as much as is within my ability.

  3. Thank you for this article,God bless you!!!we all need to start to do the right things so we can live in right and peaceful environment!!!

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