Street Children Causes, Consequences and Intervention Programmes

The phenomenon of street children is rapidly becoming one of global epic proportions. Ten years ago, UNICEF estimated that over 30 million children worldwide work and/or live in the streets, for circumstances usually beyond their control, and often without family support. Current estimates of street children worldwide number in the hundreds of millions (Street Children, 1992; Easton et al, 1994; G. Papagiannis, personal communication, 1996). Street children are not limited to the developing world. Perhaps every industrialized country has its runaways and orphans.