To give or not to give

 

THEY are hard to resist -- children in shabby clothes, dirty and sad-faced, asking for a dollar -- in US currency.

Indeed, what’s one dollar when we already spent hundreds on hotels and air tickets for a holiday which is meant to not only be fun-filled but to also broaden our horizon as we experience life in a foreign land -- away from the daily office grind?

So even as our gut feelings told us not to, we still handed over a dollar for a postcard, a bracelet, a bunch of bananas or a package of peanuts, if not merely in response to the pleading from some poor street munchkin -- give me one dollar, I need to buy milk for my hungry brother.

Then you passed by some musicians sitting on a platform with their prosthetic legs in plain sight – probably victims of bombs and land mines. At such moments, you’d find it easier to part with gifts.

It’s only a dollar. Even with our depreciating ringgit, it’s still only RM3.30 -- a mere sacrifice of kampua mee kosing and kopi-o kosong for breakfast.

While travelling further to a floating village at Lake Tonle Sap during a recent visit to Cambodia, the nine of us in our group were “forced” to buy a 50kg sack of rice for an orphanage, each of us chipping in US$5.

I did a mental calculation – it would mean a kilo of rice for RM3.60 which is considered very expensive and I know I don’t go for that price range for the staple.

The Russian couple in our group started collecting from each one of us. It was difficult and painful for me and my other three journalist friends – we knew it was a scam. And it was because of fear that a refusal could spoil our holidays in a bad way that made us open our wallets.

There are lots of overwhelming sights and spots in Cambodia – Angkor Wat, Lake Tonle Sap or Phnom Penh.

While it’s only human that our immediate response was to want to fix the problems we saw during our walkabouts, our impulsive-ness was often futile in the long run.

Yes, it all appeared so natural and harmless but who knows what resistance may bring? It’s sad and seems so callous and cruel.

The unfortunate truth is that the situation is bad. Why do begging children exist in the first place? Why shouldn’t we give money to begging children? What is really going on?

Often we assume children willingly beg to support their destitute families. But the real story may be quite different – children are frequently trafficked from the villages and forced to beg along ur-ban streets or in tourist areas.

Iveta Cherneva wrote in her book -- Trafficking for Begging: Old Game, New Game – that traffickers will choose children with handicaps as a handicapped child earns three times more than a healthy one.

However, the scenario can be much worse. According to reports, not all child beggars are trafficked – sometimes, they are exploited by their own parents.

“The bottomline is that giving money to street kids is not pro-ductive in solving the issues with them, with their families, or with them being on streets.

“There are more complicated issues going on behind their cute faces and shabby clothes,” Sam Flint, director of Anjali House, an education centre for former street children in Cambodia, told the New York Times.

I talked to a tourist guide, Chat, 21, while heading to Lake Tonle Sap and he told me giving “a dollar” to the street children ensured a thriving labour market for these youngsters whom, he pointed out, shouldn’t be working in the first place at their young age.

He said many of them were not from Siem Reap but brought in from other provinces to work in the streets.

“By supporting these children, we are exposing them to predators, traffickers, drug dealers and child sex tourists.”

As Chat continued, a boat carrying two children (each with a small python coiled round their necks) and an adult came near our vessel.

As I clicked away happily with my camera, one of the little boys drew the snake nearer me, saying give me a dollar.

The creepy thing scared me but Chat said: “Don’t give. These kids are supposed to be in school now. Giving them hand-outs jeopardises their future -- every dollar a tourist gives deprives the parents of an incentive to make sure their kids go to school and get a proper education.”

According to Chat, there are over 24,000 child street sellers working throughout Cambodia.

Twenty-four thousand children! That’s a lot. But if I don’t buy from them just to show that I’m not supporting child labour – or even that I’m depriving them of schooling -- then they will go hungry. If I buy, maybe they will have some food to eat -- maybe, they can also go to school?

My one dollar may create a positive interaction between me and the child who receives it, but where will the money go at the end of the day? Will the positive interaction go further or stop with the child?

UN volunteers, children charities and aid groups introduced a campaign in Cambodia in 2011 called Think Twice with the inform-ed motto Let parents earn and children learn.

And consider this too -- the Child Safe Network suggested supporting vocational training projects and buying products made by these parents so they can earn an income and keep their families together and volunteer their skills with organisations which are building the capacity of local staff to ensure long-term sustainability of the community.

I don’t have the right answer – to give or not to give. Maybe, I shall go by instinct to help lighten the burdensome tray of peanuts a sweet innocent girl is carrying on her head, or brighten up the face of the girl selling bamboo flutes?