YEMEN: New study highlights plight of street children

Source: IRINnews

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

Ahmed (not his real name) has been sleeping near a secondary school in the centre of Sanaa city, Yemen's capital, for almost a year. He said he had come from the northern governorate of Amran to work and support his family back home.

The 14-year-old sells cigarettes and sweets in the city. "My father went to Saudi Arabia three years ago to find a job but didn't come back. I have three brothers and one sister and my mother asked me to find any job here in Sanaa to sustain them," he said.

The boy makes 400-800 Yemeni riyals (about US$2-4) a day and did not want to rent a room, in order to save money.

Ahmed is among an estimated 30,000 street children in Yemen, of whom 60 percent work and sleep on the streets and tend to be separated from their families, according to a new study. The remaining 40 percent work the streets but return to some kind of makeshift home at night.

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*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.