STREET KIDS

Who are they?

Street children describes children who live or work on the streets. Some of these children live with their families (who are also living on the streets).Most children on the streets are between the ages of 10 and 14 years old.Other street children live and work on the streets but do not live with their families.The term can also include child labourers, sexually-exploited children, and war-affected children,who may also be forced to live or work on the street.The children's relationship to the street varies.Some live and work with their parents on the streets. Some return home at night,but work independently during the day.Others maintain their family contacts, but are forced to spend most of their time on the streets and return home once in a while to spend a night with their family.Still others sleep and live entirely on the streets of the big cities without any family contact at all: often they have left home due to abuse.They sleep in abandoned buildings,under bridges,in doorways,or in public parks.

Street Kids are defines in two main categories:

1. Children on the street are those engaged in some kind of economic activity ranging from begging to vending.Most go home at the end of the day and contribute their earnings to their family.They may be attending school and retain a sense of belonging to a family. Because of the economic fragility of the family,these children may eventually opt for a permanent life on the streets.
2. Children of the street actually live on the street (or outside of a normal family environment).Family ties may exist but are tenuous and are maintained only casually or occasionally
   

Street children exist in many major cities,especially in developing countries and may be the subject of abuse,neglect,exploitation or even in extreme cases murder by "clean up squads" hired by local businesses.

In Latin America, a common cause is abandonment by poor families unable to feed all their children. In Africa an increasingly common cause is AIDS.