The Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare has described financial constraints as a major factor affecting the initiative of removing street-connected children from the country’s streets.

This comes barely a week after Ombudsman Martha Chizuma ordered the ministry of remove all children from the streets by the end of this month.

Speaking to YFM the Director of Child Affairs in the Ministry, Macknight Kalanda said is not optimistic that the initiative will be successful because they do not have enough spaces to accommodate the children once they are removed from the streets.

Kalanda also said they do not have enough funds to support the children in their homes after reintegrating them which might force them to go back on the streets.

“The issue of removing street connected children from the streets has been there for a very long, but the challenge is inadequate funds to support the initiative,” he said.

Kalanda added: “Again we do not have enough space to accommodate them once they are removed from the streets. We have engaged the ombudsman that we need support from the ministry from the treasury and the ministry of finance, but we haven’t been supported to date.”

However, he said they are engaging relevant stakeholders to take a role on the matter.

Meanwhile, the matter Ombudsman, Martha Chazuma, says they intend to meet with the ministry and assess the situation together.