Andrea Downer, Gleaner WriterMARSHAIS just 13 years old and she is embarrassed to be selling on the streets. Her mother, 31-year-old Yvonne,says the teenager usually hides when she sees any of her friends or her teachers.
"When she see dem, she fling whey di box an' go hide," her mother explained with a pained expression on her face.
As her mother, whose hands were laden with items spoke, Marsha was hunched over next to a gas station pump, with a sullen look on her face. The box, which her mother said she would "fling whey", was sitting beside her and even though none of her friends or teachers appeared to be in close proximity, she was trying her best to distance herself from it.
Marsha is one of several children who are forced to sell on the streets of Jamaica to help make ends meet at home. Some of them wipe windshields, wash cars and others ... beg. While some children are given items to sell, others sell sex, sometimes of their own volition and sometimes on the instructions of their guardians or parents. Marsha and others like her are some of a growing number of unfortunate children whose childhood is being silently stolen as they are prematurely forced to assume the roles and responsibilities of adults.
TERRIBLE CYCLE
Yvonne, who says she began selling on the streets with her mother when she was 12 years old, said she did not want the same thing for her daughter, but when Marsha's father died last year, she had no option.
"Mi need di help, as is mi alone and I have her to send to school," she said quietly in an attempt to justify her actions, if even to herself.
"Mi no really leave har by harself yuh know," she continued. "Is mi an har sell every day." However, she later admitted that once per week, when she has to go to choir practice, Marsha is alone at the gas station with her box of merchandise and the responsibility of making that evening's sales. She said Marsha only joins her on the streets in the evenings as she attends school during the day. However, she is with her all day on Saturdays.
But despite her rationale for having her teenage daughter assisting her to sell, and her claims that she tries to protect her when she is on the streets, the Child Care and Protection Act takes a dim view of Yvonne's actions.
According to the Act, Yvonne is endangering her child and if she is brought before the court and found guilty, she could be fined up to $500,000 or imprisoned for up to six months. Members of the public who are aware that Marsha and other children are selling on the streets and do not report this to the authorities can also be similarly fined or charged.
SOME FORCED TO BEG
Three years ago, 13-year-old Jacob* ran away from home and begged a police
officer to find somewhere for him to live. He told the officer that he was tired of being sent on the streets to beg to support his family. At 10 years old, he had been the sole breadwinner for his family that comprised his stepfather, his two brothers one six and the other a year and a half and his mother, who was about three months pregnant. The police officer took him to a private boys' home. However, after Jacob left, the cycle of abuse in his household continued. His six-year-old brother Jackson* picked up where Jacob had left off. His mother began to take Jackson, and his one-year-old baby brother on the streets and waited while Jackson begged for several hours at a traffic light near Half-Way Tree.
A police officer who noticed their activities for several months and who had warned his mother several times, finally reported her to the Family Court. She was subsequently arrested and charged with endangering her children. She was given a suspended sentence and her two boys placed in separate children's homes. Jackson was sent to the home where his older brother had been taken while their baby brother was placed in a state-run children's nursery.
But not every mother or guardian is penalised and children who are neglected or exposed to abuse continue to be emotionally scarred and sometimes they unintentionally pass on their broken heritage to other children, even their own children, when they become parents.
