Poverty is the Biggest Violation of Human Rights

They said children are the future, and for marketers, children are easier to mold and more open to new ideas.  Consequently for d.light, we're trying out something so that we can educate kids about our solar lanterns, in the hope that they will convince their parents through this early exposure and adopt it themselves when then get older.  As part of my effort to find out more about schools in Nigeria, I learned about the saddest social/religious practice during my recent trip to Nigeria - the Almajiri School.

The word ALMAJIRI emanated from the Arabic word “AL- MUHAJIRIN”, a concept that came as a result of Prophet Muhammed’s migration from Mecca to Medina, meaning the emigrant. An Almajiri is a person, who is sent out early in life in search of knowledge.  He become a pupil of a Quranic school under a teacher known as Mallam, and engages in daily begging for food in order to survive. Under this practice, poor families from rural areas across the 19 northern states and beyond send their children when they reach the age of 6 to Islamic boarding schools in the cities of northern Nigeria. Today, the word Almajiri has become nearly synonymous with child beggar, and is increasingly looked upon as a menace to society as many of these children become vagabonds or terrorists.

 

While I don't find the tradition of Almajiri problematic, similar idea exist in the Buddhist tradition where young monks will go around begging for alms, it's a way to feed these monks but also an opportunity for the community lay people to practice the virtue of generosity; however, what I find troublesome is how as times change, this tradition is becoming an easy place for abuse and exploitation.  In an ideal situation, the Almajiri schools and the community should provide enough emotional and material support for these children, but unfortunately, the level of support the Islamic tradition called for hasn't been there in most cases.  As a result, these children end up begging on the streets with no one to turn to.  Furthermore, with the high level of poverty, many of these kids did not leave home to become Allah's servant in their own will, they are sent away by their parents at an age as little as 3 because the parents cannot afford to feed them.

I don't know about others, but I was pretty useless when I was 6.  I cannot possibly imagine how scared, confused, and betrayed I would feel if all of a sudden I'm told that I need to go on the street and survive on my own!  In many cases, the so-called "Mallam" exploit the children and take the money they begged, and leave the children with very little.  THAT is child abuse or even child slavery in my book!  They are destined to live a life of poverty and destitute in this system.  


How can any child not feel abandoned and develop a sense of hatred towards society under these conditions?  With those deep rooted feeling of lost and betrayal, these children become the perfect candidates for terrorist groups like Boko Harem, who is spreading terror and paralyzing Nigeria as a nation at the moment.  When a child never experienced love and a sense of connection with another human being in life, picking up a gun or knife become quite an easy task and could potentially be the fastest way to feel "powerful" after a whole life on the street living without much dignity. This well explains why the young men in Boko Harem don't care about the fact that they are bombing/killing innocent people who follow the same Quranic verse as they do...why they don't care about the fact that they are paralyzing the agricultural sector that produce food that feeds the rest of the country, causing food price to skyrocket and more people to suffer in other parts of the country...Boko Harem doesn't seem to actually want anything besides creating chaos potentially in retribution to such an unfair lives they have been living this whole time!  


So there you can see a whole lifecycle of a potential terrorist (or child soldier in other parts of the world).  The outdated Almajiri system, which meant well, is totally abused due to extreme poverty and horrifying ignorance of the Northern communities.  There are very little things that make me feel sad, since I'm quite a hopeful person.  Usually I could find a tiny glimpse at the light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel, and let that carry me through.  However, with these Almajiri, I feel nothing but sadness since I can't see a way out.  The entire system is so open for exploitation as the ones with power want to perpetuate it to their advantage and the poor either are too ignorant to see the problem or so dis-empowered to do anything.  There is no hope!  


In the mean time, the poor are popping more and more children out, which will only make the situation worse.  They don't understand family planning, and for many of them, their religion gives them an attitude that getting pregnant is God (or Allah)'s will so they shouldn't interfere.  So, do we tell them to stop having sex?  That's most definitely not going to happen...when you have so little, sex is their only way to experience a tiny bit of pleasure in life, how can one take that away from them?


To me, poverty is the biggest violation of human rights...there is no talk of "rights" or "dignity" when you are trapped in the poverty cycle.  You are forced to do whatever it takes to survive, and it's especially sad when vulnerable children is being forced into this type of situation every minute and second of the day.  


They said children are the future, but when I look at the children in Nigeria, I cannot help but feel hopeless.  Every time I visit a school in Nigeria, I am greeted by (literally) hundreds of innocent smile, each can lead the nation to a brighter future if they are given the opportunity.  However, after each fun school visits, I can't help but be reminded that each of these bright laughter at the end of the day, will really just represent another missed opportunity, another wasted soul, and another try at the game of life that leads to nothing.  Nigeria is growing to be the world's 3rd largest economy...it is scary to see that this is the future of the world's third largest economy.  Will my lantern really help these kids if they really just can't afford it?  For those who are at the bottom of the bottom, would a hand out be the hand up they need to get out of poverty? or would it really just further stripe away their dignity and perpetuate a system of dependency to foreign aid?