Street Children

In any big city of the world you can find children who spend most of their days on the city streets, but who return home at night to a family - often headed by a woman - living in a poor urban neighbourhood.
The children spend all or some of the time on the streets making money. They work on the streets either under the supervision of employers inside or outside their family, or they are in business for themselves. Children who work in the streets earn money by selling cigarettes, sweets, chewing gum, food or flowers. Some children shine shoes, look after cars or wash car windows for money. Others work for small companies in a manual capacity, loading and unloading goods or carrying goods across town. Children work on streets, in markets, bus depots or railway stations where there are large numbers of customers. They can also be found in front of hotels, restaurants or tourist spots.

Some children become involved in illegal activities such as the sale of drugs, robbery or prostitution.
These children have many different reasons for being on the street. In some cases, they must work in order to earn money to add to the family income. Some attend school, if only irregularly. Others cannot go to school because they need to work.
These “children on the streets” make up the majority of those called street children.

There is a much smaller group of street children who do not live with their parents or other adults. They spend all their days and most of the nights on the streets or in public places. Poverty, violence, drunkenness and sexual abuse have forced these children from their homes. Many have been pushed - or have chosen - to lose almost all contact with their families.
These children have to look after themselves and they work or steal in order to survive. Often the pavement or a doorway is their bed. They work, beg, eat, play and sleep on the street. The city street is their only home. These “children of the streets” survive by sheer guts, using their instincts and the kinship of other children like themselves to get by. Usually they do not have enough good food to eat, and they cannot keep themselves clean and healthy.
Because many have to steal to meet their daily needs, other city dwellers think of them as hooligans or vagabonds. They are often badly treated by adults: many are beaten up and sexually abused. The children feel alienated from the regular world, and many have a negative self-image. They often adopt self-destructive behaviour such as drug-taking and sexual promiscuity, often with each other. Sniffing paint thinner or glue or using other drugs also helps to dull the edge of hunger.
There are many street children in Latin America, in Africa and in Asia. Even in North America, Australia and Europe, you can find children of the street.
A small but growing number of street children are orphans, runaways and refugees from war and natural disasters. These abandoned children suffer deep emotional disturbances.
Of course, some countries have more street children than others. The average ages and reasons for living on the street are not the same in all countries either.