Street Children in Egypt

The phenomena of street children have started to increase during the past couple of decades, which caught the government recognition very recently. Street children are the causality of economic growth, poverty, high fertility, war, physical and sexual abuse. Some of these children are excited for having gained their freedom, while others are pushed on to the streets due to ill-treatment or death of parents. As a result of harsh circumstances faced by these children and inability to make ends meat, they involve in to 'bad hands' that exploit them in all wrong doings. Most of them fall under the law and end their life in prison. Hence, they live all their life being abused in different kinds, from different people weather from parents, from street criminals or from the police.
As media tackle this issue, many people began to perceive those street children in a bad way, either treating them harsher or avoiding them. These actions complicated the problem even further for the children who started losing hope for help. In addition to the low response of the Egyptian government, street children number is growing year by year in a higher rate than the number of orphanages and Child care organizations. All of these factors deteriorated the case, naming It the temporarily bomb, that if exploded, it will damage huge part of the Egyptian society and the well being of the country.
Children who live in the streets are either abandoned by their family, have homeless families or are forced to spend time in streets and return back home late at night. And if they did not come up with the expected amount of money, they can be beaten harshly.
Usually, street children are boys because they are more likely to have behavioral problems with their families than girls, who tend to be supportive. Girls are also invisible in the streets because they are usually uneducated and not part of the labor force. As a result, they either work in prostitution or as household maids.
The major problem that leads to street children is poverty. Children work either to gain money for themselves, or to support their families. There are several ways to bring up money like begging, washing cars, selling drugs or through prostitution.
Many children leave their homes, to give more space for their family members to live, especially younger siblings. This occurs since the average number in a family is almost six persons. Other children are forced to live on the streets as a result of family breakdown like divorce, separation, or death of one or both parents. Children may prefer to work in order to support the rest of their family, rather than going to orphanages, believing that they can manage to live and be attached to each other because orphanages tend to separate siblings, especially adolescents.
Physical and sexual abuse and neglect are some of the major factors that impel children to escape from home. Such abuse makes them feel humiliated and they have low self-esteem. They are also emotionally and psychologically affected. The problem with sexual abuse, in particular, is that no one knows about it until the child had been raped and killed and perhaps killed. Usually, sexual abuse is caused by family member or relative. Children may also be tempted to escape home in case of parents’ neglect as they may be working a lot and not spending any time with their children.

Personally i wish that all wealthy Egyptian people take an action towards this disaster, because the government is taking very slow steps that will not make a difference at all.