Sundday, October 25, 2009
"I do not go to school and I have to work to feed myself because my father and mother both died by shells in our home," Omar told Xinhua in Mogadishu.
He says he stays with a relative but fends for himself by cleaning shoes in one of the most dangerous areas in the city, the main Bakara market, the scene of gruesome death of many including traders and shoppers.
"I saw many dead and injured people. I run when shelling begins. I am always afraid that the shells will kill me just like my father and mother," said Omar whose brother also works as shoe shiner.
He says he and his brother earn the equivalent of a U. S. dollar a day which barely covers their expenses and livelihoods. Although he has not had much schooling, Omar knows what he is missing and has plans for his future.
"I want to be a teacher and teach young children of my country. I do not want to work like this forever," said Omar as he run after a potential customer.
Hundreds of such orphaned children fend for themselves and sometimes for their families in the restive Somali capital, working in various manual jobs such as car washing, dish washing in restaurants, or as shoe shiners, cleaners, house maids, and sometimes porters.
Most of the orphans have one or both of their parents lost to either natural causes or as a result of the on-going daily violence in which Islamist fighters have been waging deadly insurgency against the Somali government since early 2007.
Some of the orphan children are lucky enough to be adopted by next of kin or member of an extended family but some, like Yahya Guled, 15, are not so lucky and are deprived of the opportunity to better life and education and brighter future for themselves.
"I have been living in the street since my parents died. My father was killed by gangs and mother was hit by stray at our home," Guled who works as porter said as he tried to carry the shopping of client in Bakara market.
He said life was tough for him but he expressed determination to work hard to be able to get an education which he believed would get him a good job and lift him out of "poverty."
"I want to be a doctor and I know that requires me to work hard to earn enough to be able to go to school," Guled told Xinhua.
Guled and Omar may have their ambitions for brighter future, but their priority for now seems to be surviving the harsh realities of a town where many much better off than they are could not remain and left for the safety of makeshift camps on the outskirts of Mogadishu.