STREET GIRL WITH TOOTH DECAY

About 5 years ago, I worked in downtown Port Moresby and would daily see the street kids begging on the walkway down to Steamships.

 

They would beg to get enough money to buy a Coca Cola and chips. All money seemed to be spent on food and none for mum and little brothers and sisters. Please click:

FACTS OF LIFE ON STREET KIDS

 

There was a young eleven year old girl begging with them. She caught my attention as she was the only girl beggar I had ever seen right to the present day. She would always be sitting with a bottle of Coca Cola beside her.

 

One day I asked her why she was begging. She told me she lived at Hanuabada, a village near the city with houses on the water. She was supporting her grandmother.

 

Then I did not see her again until this week in Boroko shopping centre. I stared at a young 14 year old girl and asked if she was the one. She said yes. But she did not do that any more.

 

I did notice that she still had a beautiful smile but every one of her adult teeth was decayed right to the base.

 

That came from drinking a gallon of Coca Cola a day while begging. Poor grandmother may not have been given much food.

 

I did not dare ask her how she was earning money now.

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