In cities around the world, there are countless cases where single parents, unemployed parents, or parents who have mental or physical problems of their own, are simply not able to care for their children and the children turn to the streets. Even in affluence societies, there are instances where children and their parents simply don’t get along and rather than follow parental directives, the children turn to the streets.

Possibly the only country where street children are not a problem is China, where the ‘one child’ policy makes children a valuable commodity.

So how to solve the problem of Street Children? Education is one answer – but that means getting them off the streets and into a secure environment, where they can be free to study and are guaranteed the basic necessities of life. I wish there were easy answers to how to bring this about, but there aren’t. At the moment, there are small initiatives here and there, staffed by volunteers, by church groups and others, but the problem is still huge and not apt to go away any time soon.