June 22, 2015
by Amina Abdulkadir for PEES (edited by sgeto)
Lucrative of course depends on the point of view but from what I can tell with begging you earn about as much as with most jobs alliterated people can accomplish.
Take my neighbor Aminey for example. I like her. We share the same name and she always has some kind and thoughtful thing to say when we meet. Her two children and her husband left a while ago. Her daughter recently got engaged and lives now in the capital sana’a her son seems the life somewhere in east-africa and her husband is in “heaven” (fingers crossed).
When I met Aminey in 2009 she was already begging mub not on a daily basis. She was a maid fur various families around town and gradually quitted all of these jobs to beg fulltime. At first she defended her decisions by claiming that she simply got too old to work as maid. But I don’t think that’s true. Especially after comparing working hour, working conditions and various other factors further described in this article.
Begging seem utterly chaotic but there’s actually a lot planning behind it. As matter of fact most beggar beg in group; almost like in a team. It’s looks like the move and strangle in a very random fashion but there are certain areas in the city that are reserved by certain people and are not to be used as begging areas by others.
Most beggars are women. They just can’t earn their living in ant other area or just don’t want to. And even though it look like they’re on their own they are being constantly observed by their fellow “team member”.
Money Aminey earn isn’t just for the most important this. It’s enough to pay for the rent, a TV subscription and covers her qat and cigarette consumption.
I used to feel so bad about her until I realized that this must be as much as I earn. And I work as cleak in a pharamacy. So I decide to get to the bottom of this first interviewing her and that documenting everything here.
If you go begging in morning you get up as early as 8 o’clock and prepare yourself to meet with a lot of other woman and
be about due high expectations and hopes somalain single (parents) woman escape from their home country because of civile war to live a peacefull life.
Circumstances has forced those women around 24-25 years old to provide for their families by going begging. A way to get easy money or a unnesassary [lfestyle not form public tolorant lifestyle?] Aminey Ahmed who is beggar for 20 years tells us that since her husband died 20 years ago that was the only thing that she could do to privide her son and her daugther. Because she had like most somalian women never been to school and althugh she was not really a good maid according to Aminey Ahmed she had no choice. " aljoum" which means today is the name they like to call themselves and although what they practice. At 8 o'clock in the morning all aljoums [slready ready to take off with the first bus] are in start positions reasy to catch the first bus because if you are the lucky one who gets in first but you have the opputunity to choodr later in the market area where you want to sit and if you choose wisely you you beg the most money every aljoum knows that. Because of that reason unfortunately no one cares about antone else turning violent, pushing fights nowadays this dramatic scenes have become common . The worse part is that they taken even take there little children [6 monaten] with them by showing them on the street they hope to gain more sympathy from the people. Aminey Ahmed said those little between 8 month till 7 years are suffering the most weather in the crowded violent buses or sitting on the burning hot ground over 6 hours by firect sunbeam just to have about 1000-1500 rial at the end of the day. for those begar this money is not enough there is the darkside if this business where prostitiion becomes more and more choosen for helpless, single parent beggar women.
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