I Have Seen God! Have You?
Friday, June 29, 2007
Walking alone on the streets of Kathmandu, I see many of the children on the streets. I often think about them; what are they doing in the streets? Hy are they here? What are they going to do in the future? Do they have any future or not? These are the questions that keep my mind busy.
Most of the street children have run away from their villages, because of the physical torture, quest to earn money which drive them to the city and they join the groups. There are few children who are from good family but only for their fun and freedom they join these groups. Most of these kids collect plastics, rags, and sell it and earn for their living.
These kids can adopt every condition. They are waterproof in the rainy season, internally hot enough to face the cold. When the dark and cruel winter night throws millions of knife on them, they don’t freeze to death. Cold doesn’t seem to affect them. There is nothing that they can’t go through. It is said that “Man can fight anything but not the hunger,” but they have developed the special weapon even to fight hunger; Glue Sniffing. Yes, they sniff Dendrite, popular glue to sniff. They sniff it just to kill the pain caused bye starvation. But now they are habitual. Most of them are addicted to it where as there are numbers of the children, who are not addicted, they just imitate others. Almost every child in the street sniffs glue, unaware of the serious damage to their health. Not everybody knows what exactly the glue sniffing is, but they know it’s bad. Here is how I know it, “Inhalation of the fumes from organic solvents of the type found in paints, lighter fuel, and glue, for their hallucinatory effects. As well as being addictive, solvents are dangerous for their effects on the user’s liver, hear, and lungs. It is believed that solvents produce hallucinations by dissolving the cell membrane of brain cells, thus altering the way the cells conduct electrical impulses.”
I asked one of the kids sniffing glue, what is the main purpose of the awful act? I was stunned to hear his answer, he simply replied, “I have seen god. Have you? Each time I sniff glue, I feel god’s looking out for me.”
Now it is time to think about it and solve it. If this problem is ignored for the time being it can be the huge problem by the couple of years and the future of those thousands of children will be in jeopardy.
This isn’t a problem that cannot be solved. This is solved, if we all try in the joint effort. These kids can be driven back to the right path by educating them, teaching them some valuable skills to secure their future. So they can return back to the society. If they are assured that they are not outcast of the society, rather the part of society, they too have a golden future ahead They will respect that value and one day they can live a reputable life. And in future they will contribute the society with their food service in return and be a proud citizen of Nepal.
This article is written by my friend Bimlendra Khadgi, who is a student of College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has given all the rights to me to publish it in this site.
Most of the street children have run away from their villages, because of the physical torture, quest to earn money which drive them to the city and they join the groups. There are few children who are from good family but only for their fun and freedom they join these groups. Most of these kids collect plastics, rags, and sell it and earn for their living.
These kids can adopt every condition. They are waterproof in the rainy season, internally hot enough to face the cold. When the dark and cruel winter night throws millions of knife on them, they don’t freeze to death. Cold doesn’t seem to affect them. There is nothing that they can’t go through. It is said that “Man can fight anything but not the hunger,” but they have developed the special weapon even to fight hunger; Glue Sniffing. Yes, they sniff Dendrite, popular glue to sniff. They sniff it just to kill the pain caused bye starvation. But now they are habitual. Most of them are addicted to it where as there are numbers of the children, who are not addicted, they just imitate others. Almost every child in the street sniffs glue, unaware of the serious damage to their health. Not everybody knows what exactly the glue sniffing is, but they know it’s bad. Here is how I know it, “Inhalation of the fumes from organic solvents of the type found in paints, lighter fuel, and glue, for their hallucinatory effects. As well as being addictive, solvents are dangerous for their effects on the user’s liver, hear, and lungs. It is believed that solvents produce hallucinations by dissolving the cell membrane of brain cells, thus altering the way the cells conduct electrical impulses.”
I asked one of the kids sniffing glue, what is the main purpose of the awful act? I was stunned to hear his answer, he simply replied, “I have seen god. Have you? Each time I sniff glue, I feel god’s looking out for me.”
Fact Sheet on Glue Sniffing Among Street Children in NepalSource: CWIN Survey on Glue Sniffing Among Street Children in the Kathmandu Valley, 2002
- According to CWIN estimation there are 5000 street children in Nepal and around 400 - 600 are based in the Kathmandu Valley.
- CWIN Research on Alcohol and Drug Use among Street Children in Nepal, 2001 has shown that between 25 and 90 per cent of street children use substance of one kind or other.
- Glue sniffing is relatively new trend in Nepal. It is fast becoming an addiction among street children in Kathmandu. The current prevalent of glue sniffing is 51.7% among street children in the Kathmandu Valley. 19.7% have started using glue two years ago, 34.4 % started a year ago and 27.9% started just few months back.
- Glue sniffing is taken as a 'debut' drug by street children. Mostly street children begin drug-taking by glue sniffing and end up on other, more hard-core, drugs.
- Street children, who do not even smoke or drink alcohol often sniff glue.
- In general, the main short-term effects reported by the responding children were hallucinations. Its ill effects have resulted in problematic behavior, self-destruction due to hallucinations and fighting amongst friends.
- The reasons given by the users for sniffing were low self-esteem, an inferiority complex and having enough pocket money to buy this substance.
- Children also use glue because it is cheap and easily available.
- Most of the harmful effects of Glue Sniffing are found to be related to the brain and the Nervous System. 63.9 % have reported one or other kind of illness as long term effects of glue sniffing.
- Even among non-users almost all the children knew about glue sniffing. In the group of non-users a majority (85%) have seen their friends sniffing glue.
- Glue sniffing can be termed as 'group activity' among street children. 95.1% children use glue with friends. 77% use glue in peer influence and 60.7% children sniff glue daily.
Now it is time to think about it and solve it. If this problem is ignored for the time being it can be the huge problem by the couple of years and the future of those thousands of children will be in jeopardy.
This isn’t a problem that cannot be solved. This is solved, if we all try in the joint effort. These kids can be driven back to the right path by educating them, teaching them some valuable skills to secure their future. So they can return back to the society. If they are assured that they are not outcast of the society, rather the part of society, they too have a golden future ahead They will respect that value and one day they can live a reputable life. And in future they will contribute the society with their food service in return and be a proud citizen of Nepal.
This article is written by my friend Bimlendra Khadgi, who is a student of College of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has given all the rights to me to publish it in this site.
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