Street children: the facts

South Africa

250,000 nationwide.

Gambia

45% of street children say they have been beaten on the street.

Snapshots from Asia (9)

150 million children work in the Asia Pacific area--104 million of them in hazardous forms of child labour. Asia has traditionally had high numbers of children on the streets:

Bangladesh

Over 445,000; 75% of them in Dhaka. The numbers of boys and girls are almost evenly split.

India

11 million; Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta each have over 100,000.

China

300,000, of whom half also sleep on the streets.

Burma

Estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000; less than 25% of all Burmese children complete primary schooling.

Vietnam

In 1995, there were 50,000. In 2001, 78% of street children had reportedly left home because of poverty.

                        Street
Cities                  children

Nairobi, Kenya          60,000
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia   60,000
Accra, Ghana            20,000
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire  20,000
Casablanca, Morocco      5,000
Bangui, CAR              3,500

1 'UNICEF wary of post-war child trafficking in Iraq', UNICEF press release, 13 June 2003. 2 'UNICEF calls for eradication of commercial sexual exploitation of children', UNICEF press release, 12 December 2001. 3 'All children deserve protection from exploitation and abuse', UNICEF, 2004. 4 Strategies to combat homelessness, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, Nairobi, 2000, http://hq.unhabitat.org/en/uploadcontent/publication/hs.599.06.pdf 5 BBC News, 'Street children surprisingly healthy', 13 April 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1920570.stm 6 Sebastian Marot, Director FRIENDS in consultation with Cambodian NGOs, reported by Consortium for Street Children, 2003. 7 Nancy Leigh Tierney, Robbed of Humanity: Lives of Guatemalan Street Children, Pangaea, Saint Paul, 1997. 8 Facts from the Consortium for Street Children's Civil Society Forums on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Street Children: North Africa and the Middle East, 3-6 March 2004, Cairo, (with Hope Village Society); Francophone Africa, 2-5 June 2004, Senegal, (with Street Child Africa and Avenir de L'Enfant); Anglophone West Africa, 21-24 October 2003, Accra, (with Street Child Africa and Catholic Action for Street Children) and East and Southern Africa, 11-13 February 2002, Nairobi, (with Street Child Africa and Undugu Society of Kenya). Reporting by Hope Village society with members of the Egyptian network for Street Children (Egypt); Peace and Development Volunteer with Sabah and partners (Sudan); Croix Rouge and partners (Benin); OPDE Congo and partners (DR Congo); Catholic Action for Street Children (Ghana); Child Protection Alliance and partners (Gambia); Bayti and partners (Morocco); Beatrice Epaye, Network for Street Children (Central African Republic); University of Cocody (Cote d'Ivoire); Undugu Society (Kenya); UNICEF (Ethiopia). 9 Consortium for Street Children's Civil Society Forums: South Asia, 12-14 December 2001, Colombo (with ChildHope and PEACE) and East and South East Asia, 12-14 March 2003, Bangkok. Reporting by KKSP Foundation (citing ILO figures); Aparajeyo (Bangladesh); Asha Rane (India); Save the Children UK China Programme (China); World Vision Myanmar (Burma); Terre des Hommes-Lausanne, Vietnam and partners (Vietnam).

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