It is necessary to distinguish two types of children living in the streets of the the developing countries:

Children in the streets:
They are children who wander all the day in the streets but which still have the possibility of returning the evening on their premises. They still have a house and a family but do not go any more to school. They are exposed daily to the dangers of the street, often by their families in order to bring back a little money to the house. The majority of their time is spent begging, selling trinkets, waxing shoes or washing cars...

Children of the streets:
These children have broken all bonds with their families, either as a result of family conflicts, or because of the loss of their parents. They are thus forced to live and sleep in the streets and they are the children who are most exposed to dangers as they cannot depend on anyone. They must manage to survive.

Figures:
In spite of the difficulty in determining the precise number of the street children in the world, the UNICEF provides the following data: there would be 100 million street-children (in the broad sense), including 40 million in Latin America, 30 in Africa and 30 in Asia. 75% would be children in the streets and 25% children of the streets. In addition, the number of street children increased during the last decade, proportionally with the growth of the population of the Third World.

Why do these children find themselves homeless?

The major causes are as follows:

1. Poverty:

The children are the first victims of poverty. Families with no income are even known to drive out such children in order not to have too many mouths to feed.

2.Rural migration :

The countryside is being more and more stripped and cities become more attractive to poor people. Children think they will be able to earn their living in the cities and end up leaving their homes

3. Break up of the communities:

Previously the concept of a community acting like a large family prevailed. All children found a place in these communities, since there was always someone to grant a minimum of asylum and protection. Nowadays, the communities are not like this. Families do not help each other any more and orphaned or maltreated children can no longer depend on other members of the community like they used to do. The street is its only alternative of survival.

4. Family conflicts:

The physical, emotional and sexual maltreatment by the parents (often by the parents-in-law) is the most common reason that pushes children to leave their families. Parents are either in prison, drug addicts or alcoholics; their mothers are sometimes prostitutes… This causes the children to be neglected. The children then often prefer the world of the street rather than to follow this maltreatment.

5. Orphans:

Many children of the developing countries have been orphaned due to wars but also because of their parent’s deaths of AIDS, mainly during the last 2 decades. The UNAIDS estimates that at the end of 1997, there were 6,2 million orphans of parents dead because of AIDS, 95% living in Southern Africa. The World Bank estimates that in Uganda, 1,7 million children became orphans following the death of their parents. This is since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

In the majority of the cases, children decide to live in the streets when several of these causes simultaneously happen.

How do these children manage to survive in the streets?

Surviving is the daily problem of these children: They have to find a place to sleep, find food, fight against the diseases, etc… Getting money is their only concern to survive. 50% of these children die in 4 years.

Problems that the children must face:

1. Hunger and thirst:

The search for food is a constant concern. They rummage through dustbins, steel fruit from the markets, and with the little money they earn, they buy whatever they can. As a result, they suffer from serious problems of malnutrition and become extremely weak. They buy water from unreliable sources, which is often contaminated.

2. Place to sleep:

The children sleep wherever they can. They try to find places that protect them from cold: boxes in hallways, under bridges, in refuge sites and abandoned buildings.

3. Hygiene:

The children do not have a place to wash themselves nor a place to wash their clothes, therefore they are constantly dirty. They do not have more than one set of clothes and walk around in bare feet. As a result they catch all kind of diseases. This appearance does not help them in being accepted by society.

4. Loneliness and rejection of the others:

People are afraid of them: The children are judged because they steel, they do not go to school and they wander the streets all day long. People reject and insult them. People do not understand that these children are, first of all, victims. The reason that pushes them to illicit activities is just surviving. It is thus very important to teach the population why the children are roaming the street.

5. Insecurity:

The street exposes them to all kind of dangers: violence and even sometimes death. In certain countries of Latin America like Brazil and Colombia, there are "escuadrones de la muerte" whose mission is "to clean" the districts of these children. The children are the most likely victims of any kind of violence. At night the danger is worse: often, the money they earned during the day is stolen. This prevents them from saving little money for a better situation in the future.

6. Diseases:

Diseases ealily cured:

Children catch diseases that could be easily cured. There are several reasons for this: their non-hygienic way of life, lack of nutrition and contaminated water. They catch skin diseases like scale, tineas, lice. They suffer from intestinal disorders, diarrhoea and of bronchi diseases, which can later become tuberculosis. They do not take care of their wounds, which end up becoming infected.

Malaria is also a problem in the tropical countries because children do not have any protection against the mosquitoes. Malaria can be fatal if it is not treated in time.

In addition, girls fall pregnant very young because prostitution is one their main ways to survive. They sometimes die of childbirth practised under execrable conditions.

AIDS :

The AIDS epidemic in the developing countries is extremely serious. According to UNAIDS, in 1998, more than three million children were infected by the AIDS virus, including 590.000 children who are less than 15 years old and 2,5 million between 15 and 24 years old

The street children are the first victims of AIDS, since they know little about how the disease is transmitted. They catch the virus mainly by sexual intercourse in which they do use any protection. Drugs are far too expensive. In addition, girls practicing prostitution transmit the virus at high speed. Unfortunately, the lack of education and the difficulties which these children face daily, cause them to have little concern for AIDS.

In addition, there are many children born who are already infected with the AIDS virus.

7. Drugs:

75% of street children inhale solvents.
Street children try to escape their daily difficulties by inhaling solvents like adhesive (toluene, cyclohexane...) They soak a small rag which they hold in their hand all day long. They need it to fight against cold, hunger, fear and loneliness. The effects are immediate, causing intoxication, which modifies the perception of reality. The solvent most used is the shoemaker adhesive since it is easily available and cheap.
This solvent is very dangerous. Indeed, the solvent is made to dissolve fats, they tackle the myelin, which surrounds the nervous cells. Regular consumption of it at the crucial period of the psychomotor development involves irreversible lesions of the central nervous system, lungs, liver, heart and brain. Moreover, this solvent can increase aggressiveness.
The children tend not to take other drugs because they are too expensive for them.
The adhesive destroys their capacity to escape and keeps them living on the streets.

In order to try and ease their situation, the children create organized gangs which try to obtain money by all means such as doing odd jobs, begging, delinquency and prostitution

1. Organisation in gangs:

To face loneliness and insecurity, the children gather in gangs. Integration with these "nests" is practically inescapable. Thus, safety and subsistence is better assured. Member friendship is of primary importance since it recreates the emotional base lost at the time of the family scission or the death of their parents.
Groups are very hierarchical organised, the roles of each one is strictly defined. There is always a leader, generally the oldest one, who will manage the daily activities of the group. In general, the members of the group entrust their money to the youngest one of the group. All members of the group have the obligation to bring back food or money at the end of the day.
The group offers help to the children but can cause also exploitation of young people by the older ones in exchange of their protection.

2. Odd jobs:

A few of them have the chance find part time work but some succeed in gaining a little money by carrying on various activities: waxing shoes, selling what ever they find, cleaning, collecting trash, recovering cans, bottles and aluminium from dustbins, transporting packages, washing cars, etc…

3. Begging:

Children do not like to beg because the street is their field and they prefer to eat with the money that they earn. But often they do not have other choice. In those cases, they are placed generally at the door of big city hotels.

4. Delinquency:

To survive in the streets, the children must sometimes practise illicit activities. They walk the streets, steeling goods from tradesmen and mugging.

5. Prostitution:

For the girls, prostitution is the main way of surviving. Very young and for very little money they are forced into prostitution. Sometimes, they become servants and are subject to prostitution.
The girls earn very little money because they are regarded as "dirty prostitutes".
Because of prostitution, they fall pregnant very young and they then found themselves with an additional mouth to feed. They catch all kind of diseases, particularly AIDS since they generally do not use any protection with “customers”.