The Leanbh service of the ISPCC has been working with parents and children begging on the streets of Dublin since 1997
THE STEADY drizzle of a cold winter’s day has most passersby running for cover.
But Anna, a 17-year-old Roma, can’t afford to leave her spot – a lamp post on the edge of Merrion Square.
She extends a broad smile, complete with two shiny gold teeth, to Anca Popescu, a Leanbh support worker, whom she knows well from Anca’s work engaging child beggars on her street shifts.
“I don’t mind the weather, I never get sick,” says Anna, refusing the offer of an umbrella from Anca.
They speak together in English as Anna has been in Ireland for 10 years with her family and has spent some time at school here learning the language.
Unlike many new arrivals from Romania, her family is eligible for social welfare.
But Anca says begging is a tradition in her family, which is hard to break.
The Leanbh service of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) has been working with parents and children begging on the streets of Dublin since 1997.
It warns the number of sightings of children begging is rising with its most recent annual figures for 2009 showing a 9 per cent increase with 966 sightings.
Adriana Fechete, Leanbh manager, says “seasonal begging” seems to be increasing, probably due to the economic downturn.
She says Roma and Traveller children are the two biggest groups involved in begging.
There are also some homeless children begging on the streets, a practice she warns leaves them open to dangers such as bad weather, drugs, petty crime and prostitution.
“There is a risk because these children are very vulnerable. They are easy victims,” she says.
Parents can be prosecuted under the Children’s Act 2001 for allowing their children to beg, although Leanbh believes that prosecutions tend to be counterproductive and the families of children begging need support.
The service says it has not come across evidence of children being trafficked into the country to beg by organised gangs.
But it has come across serious incidents, including two-week-old babies being brought out with their mothers to go begging.
The Leanbh street shift workers inform the health authorities and the Garda if they feel a child or baby is in danger.
But they generally work by persuasion, trying to get parents and children to visit the Leanbh drop-in centre on Baggot Street where food, warmth and toys are on offer for the kids.
“A key part of our work is trying to get parents to enrol the children into schools.
“We have paid for schoolbooks and uniforms because poverty is one of the reasons the kids don’t go to school,” says Fechete.
In the playroom at the drop-in centre, a 13-year-old Roma girl is working on the computer.
She arrived in Ireland five months ago and began begging on the streets but has been persuaded by the street workers to start school.
“I came here with my granny to join the rest of my family. They came here to work but found no jobs. “It is very difficult because we don’t have money so I went begging. In three or four hours, I made €10 in front of McDonalds on O’Connell street,” she says.
“Some people are very nice and some can be a bit aggressive when you are begging,” she says.
The girl, who doesn’t want to give her name, says she is glad she is now going to school.
“I love it. I like geography, maths, history and I’m very keen to learn English,” she says. “We will probably stay in Ireland for a while and then move on to Turkey with my family.”
Just around the corner from the drop-in-centre on Merrion Square, a 15-year-old Roma girl is also braving the rain.
She has just arrived with her family in Ireland and they do not qualify for any social welfare payments so begging is their only way to eat.
A passerby throws a couple of coins into the paper cup, which she extends out in front of her.
This is the second time Anca has met her and she manages to get her address.
“She told me that she would go inside in about 30 minutes to escape the rain,” says Anca.
“I will go to her house and try and follow up with her family next week. Try and persuade them to put her into school,” she says.
On Molesworth Street, just a few hundred metres from the Dáil, a 22-year-old Traveller is begging with her 18-month-old baby in a buggy.
“This is a spot that is usually taken by [another] Traveller lady. She is not here now but it’s one of her regular spots. There are often fights over begging spots,” says Anca.
The Traveller girl tells Anca she is going to leave soon because of the rain.
About five minutes walk away on Nassau Street, a Roma woman is sitting up against the wall of Trinity College holding her four-month-old son close to her.
“They have been here for some months but aren’t entitled to benefits,” says Anca.
“I gave the little boy a toy last week and his mum says it has run out of batteries. They called into our drop-in-centre on Baggot Street recently.
“We are trying to divert the mother from begging like this with her son,” she says.
Anca says mothers tell them they have to bring their babies begging because there is no one to look after them at home.
But it is also true that a baby can attract more sympathy from passersby, which means more money can be made for the family on a begging shift.
Changing attitudes among parents is no easy task but 365 days a year, Leanbh street workers try to make life better for these children.