Average survival on the streets is only 3 to 4 years
Forced prostitution is common. Sex trafficking and exploitation is one of the cruelest forms of abuse, violating their innocence and sense of personal worth.
Children of all ages become involved in crime as a means of survival. Many resort to drugs as an escape.
A child can pay with his life for being associated with family-related crime or gang activity.
Kids know hunger and sickness. Often, their bodies and minds are permanently damaged from the drugs they turn to as their only escape.
Approximately 18% of the children are "biological orphans" - the remaining 82% are "social orphans," having been forced to flee home due to abuse, neglect or violence.
16 children are reported murdered every day (source: 2006 U.N. Report). But many murders go unreported.
