There are approx 8 million children on the streets of Brazil
and Brazil has 50% of the world's street children populous. This number is increasing on a daily basis. Children as young as 3 go to the streets everyday.

Sadly many of the children are involved in drug & solvent abuse. Most of the children do not expect to live past the age of 18. 4 in 5 children on the streets are boys as opposed to girls. This is due to:

1. Girls being favoured to work as housemaids and nannies

2. Girls being led into prostitution

Profile of a boy on the streets
He is a child living a premature adult life. Goes to the streets looking for a way to survive. He is defensive in his attitude & doesn't trust anyone, because he is hurting. As a consequence of this hurt & the harsh life of eating & sleeping on the street, he has great difficulties with education often causing him to abandon school altogether. He develops special street survival skills.

He is starved of affection from friends & family, & society shuns him as an undesirable. His ability to grow emotionally & achieve any sense of normality is deformed by the environment that he survives in & his emotions are damaged beyond recognition.

Child Labour
Brazil has signed National & International Agreements in support of the human rights of children, however there is a huge gap between these documents & reality. In the countryside there are great numbers of children involved in agricultural work & also in the domestic labour market.

In urban areas children are working in the textile, shoe & craft industry. Many exploited into the drug & pornography scene. The last statistics available were grossly out of date but list approx 3-4 million children under the age of 14 working, with many unpaid. 90% of those who are paid are paid well below the minimum wage. (Brazilian Government stats).