Young beggars of Beirut must be helped!

Not only do the Lebanese police not take these young beggars off the streets, but they actually harass them.

I conducted two separate interviews with child beggar, a 9 year-old boy who sells flowers on the street of Bliss and an 11 year-old girl who begs on Hamra. Both children complained from police harassment and/or brutality.



Image from All Voice Website:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8409170-2-us-marshals-1-police-officer-shot-in-st-louis-police-say/image/66368558-a-lebanese-police-officer-patrols-in-beirut



While the girl complained from the day she had to run from a policeman who called her very offensive names as he chased her out of Hamra, the boy complained from more than one incident where he was physically bullied.

He never really hurt him, he stated, but they would fancy picking on him and shoving him around.

These two represent the struggles of many people who will never see a helping hand as long as they are regarded a little less inferior than human beings.

Statistics concerning child labor/begging in Beirut

In 1995, Medical students at the American University of Beirut interviewed a total of 69 street boys and four street girls working in Beirut.
The work of these children ranged from selling cigarettes, newspapers, chewing gum, collecting or scavenging garbage, and begging.
Of those interviewed, 67 percent started working between 7 and 15 years and came from the outskirts of Beirut or from the northern district of Tripoli (50.7%) or from shacks or camps (49.3%). 49 percent were identified as gypsies, 33 percent as Syrians and 18 percent as Lebanese.

Around 73 percent of those interviewed in the AUB study came from families with two parents, 5 percent from divorced parents and 18 percent were orphans. They worked 10-11 hours per day, and their take-home earnings amounted to about 69 percent after a trafficker’s cut.

RUSSEAU, S. (2011). Child labor in Lebanon: A breakdown. Retrieved April 2011, from Menassat Website: 2011

The number of young beggars in Beirut is rising

Image from Sietske's blog
http://sietske-in-beiroet.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

Street children are becoming a common sight in Beirut, some begging at traffic intersections, others wiping off dirty car windows, and others just hanging around with searching eyes that clearly show the kind of life they are living. Zeina, 10, is one of the unfortunate ones, who due to family circumstances are forced to try to sell some chewing gum before nightfall so she can return home with something to feed her sister, brother and sick mother.

Zeina, with her green eyes, taps on a car window wither dirty little hands, begging to sell her chewing gum before nightfall. "So please buy one, I have to sell them all in order to buy bread for my family," Zeina pleads, with tears in her eyes.

The little blonde girl said she has mainly lived on the streets since she was eight to help her family survive.
"I have been begging, selling roses, chewing gum, or washing windows since I was eight," she said. "My father left us because my mother got sick."

Zeina is only one of thousands of children who try to eke out a living on the streets of Lebanon’s cities these days. A few of the street children are forced to beg by their parents, while the rest are victims of some notorious gangs who push them towards flesh trades and slavery.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur. (2008, March). Street children becoming a new problem on Lebanon's streets . Retrieved April 2011, from EarthTimes Website: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/193007,street-children-becoming-a-new-problem-on-lebanons-streets--feature.html