When Street children attack...

A few Saturdays ago, Jen and I were traveling around Manila and we had the most unfortunate encounter with a few street children.

Incident #1

We were riding a jeep going to SM Manila. Jen brought some take-out food and we thought of having lunch at the mall. When the jeep arrived at City Hall, this scrawny boy suddenly jumped into the vehicle and started brushing off everyone's shoes and sandals (note: he wasn't polishing or cleaning, merely touching everyone's shoes with a dirty rag pretending to clean them). Then the boy began to beg.

Jen and I got out of the jeep and the boy followed us down. He kept pestering Jen, touching her elbows and looking at the food she was carrying.

"Sa akin na lang yung pagkain" (I can have the food?)

I was about to say something when another boy came out of nowhere shouting at the boy who was pestering us.

"Wag mo bigyan yan ng pagkain, magnanakaw yan!" (Don't give him food! He is a thief!)

The boy #1 continued to pester us (ignoring his companion's accusations) and boy #2 continued accuse his companions of stealing things. They were like two annoying houseflies buzzing around you, shouting and begging.

Jen finally got fed up and yelled at the two boys. I pulled her away and quickly strolled towards the mall. The boys then forgot about us and began to curse each other along the pedestrian lane.

Incident #2

That night we were driving home and we reached an intersection where there were three street children running around.

One of them (a healthy looking 13 or 14 year old boy) began to clean our windshields. Jen and I waved at the kid, telling him not to wipe our car anymore. But the kid didn't take a hint. He continued to wipe the windows with a dirty rag.

We told him that we didn't have any money and he should just wipe the window of the other cars (there were a lot of fancier looking cars at the back). He simply refused to leave and continued to beg, saying that he hasn't eaten anything for the day.

When he finally realized that we were not going to give him anything. He began to curse and loudly tap the car window. I continued to shake my head and said that we are not going to give him anything. The boy then called another one of his companions and told his buddy to beg on the other side of the car.

Good thing the traffic light turned green and we started to roll away. The boy continued cursing and finally slammed the palm of his hand into our window.

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It would have been easier if I gave these kids money or spare change. But then again, these kids might just spend the money on drugs or something. I think that giving money to them is not really helping them, it just makes them even more dependent on other people.

I'd rather give money and support to charitable institutions like Caritas or Tzu Chi, where I know the donations I give would really make a difference in the lives of these kids.