OPINION BY AFOLABI GAMBARI: A day at Kano dump site where kids scavenge | TheCable
e ages range from 7 to 19. The site was their own workshop, as it were, as they got busy scavenging, only slightly bothered by strange faces of passers-by and moving vehicles whose drivers got attracted and slowed down a bit to view the child workers either with empathy or sympathy.
The irony of the scene is two-fold: the dump site that seems permanent is on a major road leading from Sabon Gari to the age-old El Dorado Cinema onward the highbrow areas of the metropolis and is bordered by two schools – Holy Trinity Mission School and Government College Kano.
For the kids at the site, however, scavenging has become a way of life and is, in fact, a matter for survival. Sani Rabiu, a 17-year-old who appears to be the leader of the pack, said: “All of us found ourselves converging here every day and saw that we could work together in the pursuit of survival,” Rabiu said in Hausa.
Although they all look like they are orphans who have been left completely on their own, Rabiu informed otherwise. “We all have parents that we cater for with proceeds from this site,” he said, even saying he made between N3,500 and N4,000 daily. “Apart from scavenging, I also push the truck-bearing goods that I can get from people,” he said. But despite this “fringe” benefit that Rabiu enjoys, which gives him an edge over his mates, he still considers operating on the site a necessity.
Meanwhile, owners of shops opposite the site are not amused by what the kids see as fun while doing their scavenging. Madam Gloria Audu, who runs a fashion outfit there lamented how flies and other insects literally bombarded them once the kids began their scrounging. “The more we have tried to chase them away, the more they have returned with ferocity,” she said.
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