Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh. Many of the 9 million people who live in Dhaka are very poor. Some of those who live in greatest poverty are the street children. There are up to 1 million street children living and working on the streets of Dhaka.

Some of the children are on the street - they work, play and spend most of their day with other children on the street but have families to return to at night. These children often help the family earn money by working on the streets.

Other children are of the street - they survive without family, entirely on their own, except for the company of other street children or those willing to help and support them.

CSKS is a Street Children programme in Dhaka which supports children of the street and is one of the Global Footprints partners.

This activity gives you a chance to learn more about the problems facing street children. Below is a list of dangers and difficulties that children of the street have to face. What do you think are the most serious problems facing young people who live and work on the streets?

After you have decided you will be able to compare your choice with what the street children themselves actually think. A survey of the street children who are helped and supported by CSKS found out which difficulties and dangers they find the most serious.

Difficulties and dangers faced by children of the street

What do you think are the ten most serious problems?
Click on ten issues

Being hungry and not having enough to eat
Being tortured by police
Not having a bed to sleep on
Not enjoying the work they do on the streets
Feeling lonely; not having any friends
Not being able to get a job
Nowhere to go for protection from the rain
Feeling frightened and hopeless about the future
Not being able to learn to read, write and do maths
Being abused and robbed of their money by adults
Not having clean water to drink
Adults insulting them or physically hurting them
Not being able to get medicines when ill
Girls not being able to marry
Not having clean clothes to wear
Having very little money and earning very little from their work
Not having the power to protest against bad treatment by adults

>>> How did you do? Click here

You correctly identified
of the top ten difficulties and dangers faced by street children

NOW CLICK HERE to find out what the street children said.

You may be surprised to see that the street children themselves are less worried about issues like food, clean water, clothes and having a bed to sleep on and more worried about issues of bad treatment by adults and lack of decent work and money.

For more information on the work of CSKS and how they are supporting street children in Dhaka click here.