 What can be done to get people off the streets? Ms Chanthone Phosalath, 24, a resident of A-kard village, said: "I feel sorry for beggars even though they have healthy bodies. Nowadays most beggars are children. Some have their smaller brothers and sisters with them. They are too young and I don't think that they can work, so they have no choice but to walk around the city and beg for money. If we give them money it is only a temporary solution. It gives them money to buy food and sweets. But it is not a solution in the long term. I think there should be a centre for street children and beggars. This centre should give them vocational training. They should be trained in professional skills and after that they can go back to teach children in their villages. These people come from some remote villages and some Hmong people become beggars. These people are diligent, but no one supports them. They don't have enough knowledge about how to earn money, they are poor and they don't have a chance to study. So it forces them to do this. I think that if they have a job and they can earn money they will stop begging. The Government can't solve this problem alone. I think everyone in society should help each other to solve it. Rich people should make donations because I see them spending a lot of money on traveling. Some rich foreigners might also want to donate money if we manage the donations well." An official from the Department of Labour and Social Welfare said: "We are preparing to manage the beggars. We will send the healthy beggars back to their hometowns. The authorities in their villages will educate them and we won't let them beg during the festivals, or other occasions coming at the end of the year. Some beggars who are addicted to drugs will be taken to the Somsanga Rehabilitation Centre. We still don't have a long term solution for the beggars. But there are some long-term projects for street children who walk along the streets to beg for money. There will be a centre for them soon. The centre will teach them how to read and write and there will be activities for them like playing games and listening to story tales and sometimes there will be some meals for them. Street children will be able to go to the centre all the time. They will go to learn or take a bath if they are dirty. And the authorities at the centre will contact their parents and send them back to their parents and their communities. We cannot teach them vocational skills because most of the street children are too young and they cannot find work. We will have a centre for them because we don't want them to use their free time walking along the roads. Most of them are children who have parents but their parents don't take care of them, so instead they walk around." Ms Mao Keodalavong, 26, a resident of Thongkhankham village, said: "I don't go near beggars because I don't see any disabled beggars. Most of them have healthy bodies, but they are lazy to find work. Maybe this is an easy way for them to earn money. I think our city should solve the problem and the sector concerned should organise work for them and not let them beg for money in the city like this. Laos is not a developed country, but it is a small country. I think we can solve the problem." Ms Kongma, 23, a resident of Thongkhankham village, said: "If we let a lot of beggars walk along the road it will make our country lose face, and those children will become lazy. They will not want to work when they become adults. I know that some of these children are sent to the Somsanga Rehabilitation Centre temporarily but after that they are released. It is not the solution. When they are released they walk along the roads and beg for more money. I think there should be more help for them." A resident in Nongbuathong village, said: "In my village we hardly ever see beggars. But my village is not located in the city so they don't want to walk around my village. I think it is very difficult to solve the beggar problem because the cost of living in our society is getting higher. So the number of poor people is increasing and they have to beg for money. It is not only our country that has this problem, I think other countries also have beggars. One way to solve the problem is to wait until our economy is better than this. If our economy is better then the society will change in a good way." A beggar said: "I come from Nongtaeng village. I come with my children to collect empty bottles and sell them. Sometimes I beg for money from foreigners. Some people give me money and some don't. I have to earn money to buy food for my children. My kid is eight months old so he cannot collect bottles, so I get my other child to hold him instead of me. Today my children and I don't have money to buy food. I had just enough to buy water for them to drink. I am not scared of the police catching me because I collect bottles to sell. Sometimes I have to beg because I have only been able to collect a few bottles." |
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