Disowned by family: Calabar homeless children tell tales of harsh street life
I want to go back home, but my father has rejected me outright. He told me he does not want me as his son anymore. My mother died in 2009 and my father remarried. I am not happy that I am in the street,” says 14-year-old boy, Victor Okon, who has been roaming the streets of Calabar for the past seven years. Teenager Okon is one out of the hundreds of abandoned street kids that roam the streets of the Cross River State capital without convenient shelter. The abandoned kids take shelter in uncompleted houses, abandoned yards, undeveloped plots of land in highbrow areas, unused caravans, unmonitored public facilities such as playgrounds and parks, among others. They loiter around fast food joints and big restaurants to scamper for food remnants. Most of the kids, who are not happy with their present situation, are victims of child abuse. At a workshop on violence against children organised by the United States Agency for International Development in collaboration wi...