The study presents a shocking picture. Migration to the cities, poverty, unemployment, high fertility rates, lack of social services, and the lack of support for the poor by the stateβall contributed to the problem of street children. Researchers selected 4, street children girls and 4, boys , aged , as a sample group.
However, the phenomenon is broader and affects an estimated 30, children, 60 per cent of whom work and sleep on the streets, living by their wits without contact with their families. The remaining 40 per cent work the streets but return to some kind of makeshift home at night. The situation is destined to get worse according to the study, which notes that humanitarian associations tend to avoid the problem.
Of the 6, civil society organisations that exist nationwide, only 3 to 5 of them dealt with street children. These children are underschooled; most have not complete primary school. And a good many of them left school to escape violence in that institution. The study also found street children affected by a number of diseases like diarrhoea, malaria, back ache, constant dizziness, chronic chest inflammations, ophthalmia, hepatitis and tonsillitis.
Some suffered from wasting and anaemia. Among the many kids interviewed during the study, one said that he had slept near a secondary school in the centre of the capital for almost a year without contacts with his family which lives in Amran, a northern governorate. The year-old said that he made a living by selling cigarettes in the city, and did not want to rent a room in order to save money to send to his family. Help AsiaNews. Aree geografiche. Central Asia Kazakhstan. North Asia Mongolia.
East Asia China. North Korea. South Korea. Hong Kong. South West Asia Armenia. South East Asia Brunei. East Timor. South Asia Afghanistan. Sri Lanka. Central America. North America. South America. Middle East Saudi Arabia. United Arab Emirates. Many children in the poorest country in the Middle East are exploited by unscrupulous employers or end up in prostitution.
