Street children

Hundreds of thousands of children are living and working on the streets of towns and cities throughout the developing world.

Life on the streets is often a dirty, dangerous existence. Violence and abuse are common – by the police, public and by other street children. Many street children do whatever they can to survive – often turning to begging or petty crime in order to feed themselves. It’s common for girls to turn to, or be forced into, prostitution as a means of survival.

Children with disabilities

A lack of wheelchair facilities or braille equipment in schools can prevent children with disabilities from taking part in school and society.

They often face huge stigma too – parents choose to hide their children away because they’re ashamed, afraid of how others will treat them or simply don’t see the value in sending them to school.

Getting children into school alongside their non-disabled peers is a great way of tackling some of the stigma and prejudice.

Children affected by conflict

Despite numerous international laws and high profile campaigns, children continue to be recruited as child soldiers by both government and rebel armies.

They often experience severe trauma and integrating them back into society and mainstream education can be very hard.

We’re also working with girls and young women who are extremely vulnerable to sexual violence in communities torn apart by conflict.

Children in conflict with the law

All too often, children are sent to adult prisons for committing petty crimes. These prisons are grisly, dangerous places, where children are extremely vulnerable to abuse.

We believe that children who have committed a crime should be treated differently to adult criminals and they should be channelled into effective rehabilitation programmes instead of being thrown into prison. We also know that giving them an education can be the best route to ensuring that they don’t ever have to turn to crime to earn money and survive.