Street kids living on glue, need help

FRANCISTOWN: The gaunt, scrawny and always shabbily dressed street kids, whose oversised filthy clothes often hide 'glue' a substance they liberally inhale to the detriment of their health urgently need the concerted help of all stakeholders.

Often camouflaged in innocent milk boxes, the glue container itself nevertheless screams a dire warning. The bold sign is flammable liquid 3, which indicates danger.  Under precautions, users are warned against inhalation because vapour may irritate nose and upper respiratory tract. Inhalation also causes dizziness, impaired judgement and nausea. While the manufacturers do not expect people to inhale this substance they obviously see it fit to warn them that in the event of accidentally inhaling its vapour, the effects can be dire.

While one can imagine the effect that repeated and deliberate inhalation does to one's respiratory system, these youngsters do not seem to care, judging by their actions. While shops that sell this glue to these youngsters, some even younger than 10 years, can be excused to 'believing' that they want to use it for its rightful purposes, what about the cigarettes these children puff on every so often?

Editor's Comment
The time is now to relax adoption laws

Over the years, there has been many reports of infants being abandoned by parents. Many factors can contribute to child abandonment, some of which may stem from mental health issues and lack of support, but other reasons may be that one could have made better choices with proper education. Some parents abandon their infants due to financial difficulties and the fear of having to provide for a newborn. Many developed countries have come up with...

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