The Independent (Banjul)
April 22, 2003

Posted to the web April 22, 2003
Banjul
In recent months the Bakoteh dumping site has become the scene for
food scavenging by children as young as eight, who said they have
been encouraged to go there by their scavenging friends.
A fresh gang of dirty and haggard-looking children who were busy
scrambling for food discarded in a blue plastic bag and thrown on one
of the huge mound of rubbish at the site said they were happy to be
at the site and have got used to playing on it and searching for
discarded food items.
Ndumbeh, eight, the youngest among them told The Independent that she
likes going to the site because of the chance of finding what she
could eat. She opened her small palms to show what was a soggy
plastic bag filled with pounded nuts that must have been thrown there
the night before. With a gleeful expression on her face she explained that
they have been scavenging on the site for many months now,
taking time before they go to school to visit the site for what they
can stumble upon, whether its discarded food or toys.
Another girl slightly older that Ndumbeh was meanwhile busy foraging
through some mash of rubbish dirt with her feet, which were already
besmirched with wet black sand as she tried to dig from its grave a
haggard, hairless doll long forgotten by its original owner. Four
young boys, with two dressed in uniforms rushed towards two other
boys who were calling their attention to their latest find, which as
this reporter inched closer was what the discarding owner(s) intended
as wrapped parcels, three of them with bread into which meat and
bones and sausages were carefully sandwiched. Thinking at first that
this reporter was a cleansing service worker, they all bolted only to
realise after the loud giggles of the girls that the "stranger to
their rubbish world" was a harmless inquirer. One of them recovering
from the shock generated by the intruder, unfolded one of the parcels
and unleash his teeth on the bread and bite off a chunk, to the wild
protestations of two others who thought he was about to play pranks
on them.
The boys (names withheld) said they have been used to the site, which
they visit before and after school. Some admitted that if they were
found out by their parents, they would be beaten.
Modou Leigh, who described himself as a resident of Bakoteh, said
residents of the area have got used to the sight of "noisy children"
at the dumping site but paid little attention over what they do or
get there. He said although he was of the belief that, the children
comb the rubbish for toys, they also fight over foods discarded
there.
This is not the first time that children have been found at the
Bakoteh dumping site scavenging for food. Last month the Independent
carried the story of about twelve children who said they visit the
site to find food because they are not catered for at home. Some of
them said they were not going to school and they have been abandoned
by their parents.
It was impossible to get the Department of Social Welfare or other
relevant institutions to react, as the writing of this story
coincided with a public holiday and a weekendbreak

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