Street child! Nakan of Madang town

STANLEY MARK | The Crocodile Prize

LITTLE NAKAN HURRIES ACROSS the busy lane to pick up the empty 500 ml Sprite container thrown into the rusty buai stained rubbish drum.

His skinny left fingers hold firmly a white plastic bag containing a couple of empty containers while his right fingers cling on to his buckle, pulling it up to his skinny waist every second, making sure not to let it fall and expose his undernourished legs.

His sun-burnt forehead and cheeks overflow with sweat, showing he has roamed the avenues of Madang town all day for empty containers. He has no choice. He must collect containers in order to eat and survive.

Seven year old, Nakan Akus comes from Tambunum village in the East Sepik province. He lives with his mother and four brothers and sister at the Wagol settlement, a few blocks from the Lae Building Contractor’s headquarter in Madang.

His father had left them for Lae longpela taim and they have not heard from him. The K50 his father was paid working as a bus crew wasn’t enough for both food and school fees, so Nakan had to leave Kusbau Primary School at Grade 2 in 2006.

However, as the first born in the family, he has the responsibility to take care of them.

It all began on one Monday morning, when two of his pals from the settlement persuaded him to follow them to Madang town. He was bewildered to see them going from one rubbish bin to another picking empty 500 ml Coca Cola, Sprite and Fanta containers.

He didn’t trust his pals when they told him that the containers would make them a great fortune by the end of the day when they smilingly received a bunch of eight K2 notes from a buyer.

Nakan decided that container-collection would help him, his mother, three small sisters and brother to have some food on their table every day.

Nakan says he goes to town at 12 noon and collects empty containers until 4 in the afternoon. He brings his containers to the ice block sellers and sells them for 30 toea each.

Because there are many others like him doing the same thing, he receives only K5 -K7 for what he collects.

He takes his money to the Madang market or Balasigo market and buys a heap of kaukau, two or three bunches of raw kalafua bananas and aibika, a dry coconut and spends the rest on peanuts for his sisters and the bus fare home.

“Prais bilong kaikai long stoa i antap tumas na hat long baim rice, olsem na mi save kisim moni mi kisim long konteina i go long maket. Em bai orait sapos gavaman opis daunim prais,” he frowns with puckered brow. [Prices of store goods are very high and it’s hard for me to afford rice so I take the money I receive from containers to the market. It would be easy if the government office lower the prices]

Nakan hasn’t had any visiting uncles, aunties and cousins or any other relatives as far back as he can remember. His mother looks after his sisters and brother at home while he goes to town on his daily container-collection routine. And his mother does not discourage him from going.

He lowers his head and via parted lips, he whispers, “Mi save painim ol konteina long kisim kaikai blo ol sista na brata na mama bilong mi. Mi save sori long mama bilong mi” [I look for container to get food for my sisters, brother and my mother. I feel sorry for my mother.]

Street children are a recently emerging phenomenon. Two-thirds of them are under the age of 13. The major factors contributing to the increase in street children are domestic violence, divorce, unemployment and urban migration.

In addition natural disasters like the Manam volcanic eruption have made thousands of people homeless and contributed to the increase in the number of children living on the streets in Madang.

Children like Nakan are either collecting empty containers and tin cans or begging for a living on the town’s streets.

Before the free education policy was introduced in 2012, parents would spend thousands of kina to keep their children in school. In 2001, 69% of children who started primary school were likely to quit after Grade 5.

A major challenge in Papua New Guinea is that there are no government policies directly addressing the situation of street children. Other major challenges include the lack of government support, lack of resources, and a lack of effective coordination and support between NGOs and government agencies.

Divine Word University Student Service Director, Steven Namosa, says Nakan is a hero to his family. From his tidy office, Mr Namosa says that both father and mother have the responsibility to provide food for the family.

The father should not run away from home if there is a problem between him and his wife or if he has no job. “Because of this, the innocent kids face the consequences and become the victims of the parents’ problems,” he says.

He also blames the elected leaders for not addressing the kind of situation Nakan faces.

He says though Nakan has a village where he could go back and live a good life, he needs enough money to pay for his transport home. “We should not say that’s his problem. This is where a leader should intervene to stop Nakan collecting containers to earn a living,” he said.

Nakan does not believe in miracles. As the DWU students waiting for 9A bus with plastics of cosmetics and restaurant leftovers stood watch, he dashes past them with his plastic of empty containers and picks the empty Sprite container from the rubbish bin.

He uses his half-torn shirt and wipes off the betel nut stains and carefully drops it into his plastic bag. This will earn Nakan 30 toea coins. His sweaty cheeks widen in a beautiful smile and he dashes to another bin nearby.

He has to get some more.

Stanley Mark (27) was born in Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands. He is a researcher at the Melanesian Institute in Goroka and likes to write about his culture and about social, economic, cultural and political issues affecting grass-roots people in Papua New Guinea

Comments

[Annette Kora]

A very enticing and realistic piece by Steven Mark.

Speaking of kid who collect containers on the streets to earn a living or survive, try imagining yourself on a flight to the nation's capital.

As you walk out of the arrivals lounge, the minute you step out it's nothing different to little Naka's story.

Little kids will be all over the airport looking into rubbish cans and bins to search for empty containers. For a fact, small kids in Port Moresby couldn't be any different from what little Naka is doing.

These little kids did not ask to enter this world and it breaks a person's heart to see kids suffering and struggling to survive.

Naka has seen it all and just like he had explained, his mother can't help the situation and niether can his siblings. His father without completing his roles and responsibilties left as he wasnt earning enough money being a bus driver.

Neglect from parents like Naka's father makes children suffer and this causes them to do turn drugs and illegal activities like petty crime and robberies. We cannot blame them for doing the thing they do because how else will they fill their tummies to live just one more day.

We can only hope that the government of the day will do something for this little kids and provide job opportunities for parents who do not have a decent thing to do.

[Ogia Miamel]

It is a very sad scenario that innocent boy is put in. Firstly the parents are at fault. The father should not have left the family neglecting his role and responsibility as the father to the family.

And the mother should have sought help from Churches and other NGOs and willing individuals in Madang town. If the mother have taken this initiative she would have saved her son from doing his odd job of collecting plastic containers every day.

Secondly the government is at fault, there should be some kind of an organization to care for kids and families like Nakan's.

The town authority can carry out inspections to remove these kids from the streets of Madang town and place them in the care of that Organization.

Papua New Guinea is not poor this story reflect a lot of damaging views of the country.

Please let us all help in our own little ways to help reduce potential human resource of this country from the streets of Madang and other provincial towns.

[Patricia Turlom]

This is a very sad story about Nakan's life. It reflects what a street kid in PNG does every day.

It is understood that people cannot live without food and so they have to look for all means to get money even if it means to clean the toilet.

Since the population has increased, the government finds it difficult to cater for all the needs of its people. This result in what we see on the streets.

It is the government's turn to stand up again and find solutions to this problem such as providing education and employment for all.

[Nigel Laki]

I find it terrible to read about stories like this of little Nakan.The problem of under-aged labor is not only happening in Madang but everywhere in Papua New Guinea.

This affects children especially, those who were brought up in settlements around urban areas. The parents have the responsibilities over their children’s wellbeing.

As for little Nakan he is the eldest in the family so he feels that the responsibility lies upon him because their father had left the family.Nakan is truly a little hero for stepping up to fill his father’s shoes and look after his mother and his younger siblings.

I would like to thank the writer for addressing this social issue in your writing.

[Mack Henly]

That's very sad. This situation is worsening, not only in Madang, but everywhere in the country.

School-aged children going out of their ways to make ends meet for their family by collecting contianers, selling DVDs, becoming 'traffic operators' on the streets of Port Moresby.

[Colin Huggins]

This is horrific if based on fact. Elvis has in part verified this story of despair as I had heard similar stories from a US Vietnam veteran who settled in Madang with his Australian born wife.

He had visions of Madang becoming a world famous dive place with all the pristine waters etc. He had a diving business and some other interests. He also was an excellent photographer of native plants, bugs, animals and reefs, which he supplied to overseas photography organisations.

When his wife died a couple of years ago, he sold out (no profit) and returned to Arizona, USA. He looked at the KJ blog and commented to me on some aspects, with strict instructions not to send on.

Strange, the above story he did lament upon.If the story is factual, PNG is sinking very fast.

Maybe take Nakan to the Crowne Plaza in Port Moresby for a day, as reported in the recent "amusing tongue in cheek story" of Phil. This kid would have a field day.

[Elvis Tammy]

This is very common practice in Madang lately. I have witnessed several kids doing this and also observed kids involve in street selling of DVDs, CDs and other merchandise goods for commission from the Asian shop owners.

Could the Town Authority do something about these street sales involving schoolage kids?