Christmas is just over two weeks away and with the biggest holiday in the Samoan calendar coming closer, things are surely getting busy around the town centre.

There is an increased presence of people in town areas, traffic is thicker than usual and among the growing number of people in the town and semi-urban areas is the increasing number of children on the streets either vending for their parents or hanging around in  groups of fours and fives, often begging for a tala or two.

When Magic Circus of Samoa ringmaster Tupa'i Bruno Loyale presented seven individuals including beggars and street vendors on the streets of Apia with $200 tala each he showed what the spirit of giving was all about.

But his ultimate message in his little video was that he wants children off the streets of Samoa. For this Christmas, there's one thing Tupa'i is hoping for, it is  for a change in Samoa, and to get students off the street for their families.

He described the increasing number of young vendors selling goods in Apia as "disturbing." He is not the only one who has seen this happening, as a newspaper, this common observation has also been made by our journalists who are in the field most of the day.

"My dear family and friends, I would like for you to help. It's disturbing to see that more and more children are selling goods on the streets while their parents are just sitting there which basically means that these poor children are working for their parents at a very young age,” Tupa’I Bruno said.

"When you have a child, you should give them all the food you can, clothes, take them to school and give them a beautiful life because you can only be a child once.

"Please, for those parents who are forcing their children to sell things on the street at a very young age and to work for them, they are putting the children's lives in danger.

"I just wish that things would change quickly. It's not beseeching my children to sell things on the streets and asking them for money. It's not a good look for Samoa.

"When we have tourists visiting Samoa and they see a lot of children selling goods on the streets and also begging for money, it's a bad look for tourism in Samoa and we need to stop it from happening.

"We need to work on addressing the issue before it gets out of hand. "

Each of his statements is correct and hits on the spot. Samoans have grown used to the sight of seeing children selling popcorn, cotton buds, car scents and banana chips that the common thought is that they are helping their families.

In some cases it is because of the high poverty levels but in other cases, they are being forced to sell on the streets by their parents who believe that keeping them in school is a waste of money. Just a couple of months ago, the Samoa Police were very bold in warning parents that if they find school aged children selling on the streets, then the parents would be arrested.

How many parents have been taken to task over this and was this just a public relations exercise? Samoa has laws which protect children but what good are the laws if they are not enforced.

An International Labour Organisation Rapid Assessment Survey on children vendors found that parents send children to sell to get money to pay for external commitments, meet the needs of the community and church, pay off their loans and sadly the community and churches were not taking responsibility in addressing this.

The survey found that parents send children to sell to get money to meet the high cost of living because they desperately need the money for the family.

It was also revealed that some parents send children to sell to get money because of their attitude and neglect. In other cases, parents just give up when children become difficult, rebel and let the children decide or leave them to do what they want.

It was shown that there are some parents who don’t care about children anymore so they work fulltime on the streets. Some parents are shy to go and sell so send their children instead.

There are some parents who think that it is no use to send their children to school because it is a waste of money because the children will end up failing anyway.

The matter is not that complex that it cannot be resolved but if left undealt with, it will spark an epidemic of a different kind. There will come a time when Samoa will have a large population of unqualified and unskilled people. These child vendors are also showing signs of criminal behaviour when they band together as gangs.

As a community, the village matai and village council have a responsibility to these children. They have to ensure that these children are in school and their fees and expenses are borne by the district development grants.

As church leaders and church groups, similar action is warranted and in addition spiritual guidance should be given to parents of these children to get them off the street. There also needs to be communication between the Ministry of Education and Police as well.

Above all, there should be acceptance that there is poverty and families living in high end poverty should be exempted from communal and church commitments so their focus is the children. The government needs to ensure a free education system for underprivileged children.

Action is needed now. Get the children off the streets.