We are street children.
We see life as it is.

I see street children selling sweets, savouries, lemons, fish.
Some wash cars and steal in order to survive.

At night, they have nowhere to sleep, no food and, above all, no peace.

Like these children, I too am looking for a roof over my head, food,
and work and, above all, peace.

I am in this situation because I did bad things: I lied, I stole.
But I gave everything back.
I gave them back because I was tired of living
with other people’s belongings.
I wanted to have things of my own.

I was tired of seeing such misery,
tired of such a lack of willpower on the part of human beings,
such injustice.

It revolted me to see people in bars leaving food on their plates
because this was good manners.

"Good manners" allows others to go hungry
because it would not have been the "done" thing
to buy us a plate of food.

We watch them laughing while they eat and, when we approach,
they stop eating. Sometimes they let us finish the food on their plates.

But everything in its turn: now we can eat and smile.
Perhaps not as much as others, but the worst is over
and we do not want to look back.

Now we want to study, to be someone, to have a roof over our heads,
a family, to be accepted by the community like other people,
to be dignified citizens with the right to express ourselves
and vote for the president.

Jorran