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{
    "id": 206349,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/206349/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 73,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Mango",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 288,
        "legal_name": "Christine Mango",
        "slug": "christine-mango"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I take this opportunity to thank hon. Members who have supported this Motion. I would like to thank the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs for his contribution. The children of a nation are the wealth of that nation and the future human resource of the nation. Therefore, we cannot continue talking about our children on ad hoc basis. We need to have a legal framework against which we can have a systematic support and care for these children. We cannot afford to have two million children, who we are not sure about, left to the woods and to the NGOs to take care of. The Government has a responsibility to the children of this nation. They are members of this nation and they have to be taken care of. That is why I am seeking leave of the House to have a Bill which will lay out a legal framework within which these children can be supported. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, currently, thousands of these children have no shelter, food, clothing, medical care and their education is highly compromised. They drop out of school and engage themselves in child labour, prostitution and all undesirable activities. We do not want to create a nation of Mungiki, which is a creation from the street children. As long as these children are not catered for, they will become thieves, robbers, truants and drug abusers, and we will end up having a generation that is lost. August 29, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3525 It is incumbent upon this nation to take care of these children. We, as legislators, have a responsibility. We have a chance of advocacy and influence over the Provincial Administration, district administrators and all the NGOs within our constituencies, who we should be talking to about these children. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as legislators, we have access to regional bodies who also have a problem. As I said in my introductory remarks, the African continent has 14 million orphans. Therefore, this is a continental problem which we need to talk about as legislators and influence legislation to take care of these children. They are not from the outer space. They are our children and if we do not carry the load of supporting these orphans---"
}