TIRED AND SLEEPY. A girl looks at an exhausted poverty-stricken amputee sleeping on a sidewalk in Divisoria. The man named Bong-bong says he slept on cold concrete after hours of asking pedestrians for alms. (photo by nitz arancon)
SOCIAL workers hauled off over 100 street children to two temporary shelters as it sent more than 50 mendicants from outside Cagayan de Oro home to their provinces late last week.
The street kids and the mendicants were among the 400 people rounded up by authorities as part of city hall’s “Operation Linis Dalan” campaign that was launched on Thursday night.
Involved in the ongoing campaign are workers from the city hall’s Social Welfare and Development office, and the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office.
Venamay Celeste, chief of the Oro Reception and Processing Center of the CSWD, said 123 of those rounded up were all minors. Of the 123, only 10 were fetched by their parents.
Celeste said the 123 children were sent to Tahanan ng Kabataan in Carmen, and the Mother Teresa Foundation in Maitom, Upper Puerto.
Celeste said over 150 mendicants who came to the city to beg in the streets were sent home to Zamboanga, Iligan, and Surigao.
The rest, according to Celeste, belong to families with homes outside the city proper but who have stayed under the bridge in Consolacion.
Authorities said the Consolacion area has been turned into a shelter by these families. While the did menial jobs, most of the time, the children were left to beg in the streets.
Celeste said the parents were made to understand about the Parental Code, and then warned that they would be arrested and charged if they exposed their children to risks in the streets again. (nitz arancon)
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