Slums in Sri Lanka

Large numbers are moving into Sri Lanka’s already over crowded cities, forcing the government to spend millions on upgrading slums.

Under served settlements’ are slum settlements and populations living in dilapidated buildings that are unhealthy to live in.

The Ministry of Urban Development says in the last 2 years the government has spent about Rs 450 million on upgrading under served settlements. In 2008, Sri Lanka’s national budget allocated Rs 100 million to clear up under served settlements in 10 cities in the country.

Under this programme about 2,800 houses have been built, replacing previously unsuitable shelters and another 1,200 homes are nearing completion.
W.G. Indrani and 10 members of her extended-family, 2 dogs and 4 cats live in a house built on two perches of land. Mercifully their baker’s dozen budgie birds have their own cage in the alleyway in front of the house.

Indrani’s house is one of 570 houses crowded almost one-on-top-of-the-other, in the slum settlement of Kirulapura, located in Kirulapone near the heart of Colombo city. Every inch of the houses and the alleys are alive with flies and intermittent scatterings of cats, dogs, garbage and children. The smell of urine and garbage cuts through walls.

The settlers here, many without proper deeds to their lands and houses, do not want to shift elsewhere, even in exchange for bigger plots of land and better quality of health and sanitation. “Why should we move from here? We have been here from our parents time, from 1972. There are no jobs elsewhere. This is a good place,” she says.

This is quite true. The slums occupy prime plots of commercial land in Colombo city and the settlers know they are sitting on a gold mine. Also, there is always casual work, legal and not-so legal, to be found in the city. As a result, although they are described as ‘low income’ households, many slum dwellers in Colombo are actually cash rich.

“People here earn about Rs 35,000 per month. Some earn more because there is plenty of labourer work in addition to any other regular jobs they do,” says Ms Indrani who herself operates a gas delivery business. All the houses also benefit from electricity and water and have TVs, fans and radios going at full blast.

However, despite the good cash flows, until now, getting bank loans have been difficult for people in Kirulapura. This is because banks have a problem with their postal address and also don’t trust their ability to provide collateral and repay loans.

Sri Lanka’s urban poverty is a growing problem due to expanding populations and increasing migrations into urban centres. At this point, UN Habitat estimates 65,000 slum dwellers in Colombo city alone, in 1,507 slum settlements. Other large cities like Kandy, Gampaha and Kalutara are also seeing their urban poor populations expanding. However, UN Habitat says this is a problem common to many countries as a result of rapid urbanisation.

“The increase in urban poor is one of the most crucial political issues of this century. The UN Habitat Slum Upgrading Facility was established to examine innovative financing mechanisms to help address this problem,” said the Senior Advisor of the Slum Upgrading Facility, UN Habitat, Michael Mutter.
UN Habitat is hoping to expand its current pilot programme in Sri Lanka to target around 60% of the slums in the country, in the future.

Vietnamese Slums

THAM KRABOK, THAILAND- AUGUST 12: Children of the Yang family, from left- Keng Kue age 11, Mai See age 1, Bao age 4, and her brother Chi Nou age 2 look out the window of their home for the last time before leaving for Sacramento, California on August 12, 2004 at Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Tham Krabok, Thailand. Thousands of Hmong refugees who fled Laos for Thailand 30 years ago are preparing for a new life in America after the U.S government announced it was launching a resettlement program for up to 15,000 Hmong living in the refugee camp northeast of Bangkok. The actual movement of the Hmong from the camp to their new home, including medical screening, and necessary cultural orientation classes is facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The Hmong who often live on the margins of society in Thailand have had many problems with food, health and education because of lack of money. Since the migration started, almost 900 Hmong have departed so far to the USA in small groups on commerical aircraft. On August 23 the first chartered flight will bring 288 Hmong to America. The historical migration to the USA will finally close a painful chapter for many of the refugees who had sought safety in Thailand after the Vietnam war where as many as 40,000 Hmong were fighting for the Americans in Laos. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Slums in Japan

Tokyo may share the distinctly dysfunctional appearance that characterizes slums the world over, but it falls considerably short of actually being one. Part of this, of course, is based on recognition and perception. What differentiates, for example, two wooden structures, one deemed a slum, the other a building of grace and charm? Perhaps part of the answer is that the latter improves with age while the former succumbs to it. But there is also the question of aesthetics. To the untrained eye, a traditional Japanese teahouse, with its clay walls, paper windows and thatched or tiled roof -- a costly luxury in today's city -- is easily dismissed as a humble potting shed.

Although first impressions -- stagnant canals, serrated rows of under-maintained public housing apartments stamped with giant letters of the alphabet, their balconies bedecked with laundry and drying futons, ubiquitous cinder-block walls -- are unlikely to be favorable, there is a dynamism, perhaps even a hidden order, to Tokyo's shambolic macram�Eof high-tech, high-cost modernity, and its wooden buildings, corrugated walls, roof boxes, petro-incinerated concrete, rising damp stains and rusting water drums.

The poorest of the poor in Japan include homeless who live in the cities in tents and under bridges; single parent families; elderly people with small pensions; and temporary workers who sleep in Internet cafes. There are few slums in Japan, but even the ones you do find are nothing like those in India, Brazil or even America. Still, they often have no furniture, only cushions, and no bathrooms; families must use a public bath down the street.

More than 40 percent of those receiving welfare are elderly. A large number of young people are also poor. According to the OECD 1 in 7 Japanese kids under 17 lives in poverty. Many are children of parents who are unemployed, don’t have steady work or are temporary employees.

Housing complexes for the poor are often filled with elderly people. Almost half of all welfare beneficiaries are 65 or older by contrast in the United States one in 10 are. Some receive nothing because they are homeless and the government requires them to have a fixed address to get assistance. Others are too embarrassed or ashamed to apply for it.

The elderly have been hurt by welfare cuts. Some get by on rice and noodles, keep the heat off even in mid winter to save energy costs and have given up going to weddings and funeral because they can’t bear the shame of not being able to offer a present.

In Osaka many used to live in tents set up in the park around Osaka Castle. In the Tokyo area, many live in a neighborhood called Saya and in Kawasaki, an industrial town that has fallen on hard times. In Japan the homeless are known as those who “sleep rough.”

Slums in Shangai-China

Today, Shanghai has among the worst slums in China. The housing was built decades ago by refugees from war and destitute peasants fleeing intolerable conditions in the countryside. But Shanghai, intent on burying this past, is now methodically bulldozing slum areas around the city as it builds new six-story concrete apartment blocks.

Shanghai's housing problems are not singular to this country's cities. In November, a nationwide survey of housing, a first, found that more than 10 million urban homes were substandard - being too small, lacking either running water or an indoor kitchen and having no toilets. The survey also found that 330,000 urban families were homeless.

In Putuo, the houses, stacked crazily against one another like a child's wooden blocks, have no plumbing or kitchens. Above all, they are small.
For Shanghai, the slums like Putuo are only the worst facet of an almost overwhelming housing crisis for a city bursting at the seams with 12 million people. According to the city planning department, Shanghai needs to double its housing stock.

''A lot of people are living in poor conditions,'' said Xu Rending, an official with the city's Housing Administration Bureau. ''There are several reasons for this. First, everybody relies on the Government to build houses. Factories and work places aren't building enough houses. Second, the Government cannot afford to build enough housing. And third, the money people pay for houses is very small.'' #10% of Housing Substandard Not only is there not enough housing, more than 10 percent of the existing stock is considered substandard, according to planning officials. Estimates vary among city agencies over the average living space for Shanghai residents, but most data suggest an average living area of 43 to 58 square feet for every resident. The national goal is to build enough urban housing by 1990 so that city dwellers will all have at least 64 square feet of housing space.

Slums in Egypt

Photo: Amr Emam/IRIN
Al-Dweiqa slum in Cairo in the aftermath of the September 2008 rockslide

There are some 1,221 slums in Egypt (76 in Cairo), and around 20 million people, a quarter of the population, live in them, according to the country’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Between 1993 and 2007, the government spent the equivalent of US$727 million developing some slums and relocating the residents of others, according to CAPMAS.

Seven of Cairo’s slums were identified by the government as the most dangerous in terms of health and safety - built on or under crumbling cliff-edges.

But he now travels up to 50km to get to his boat and fishing gear on the Nile. With a weekly income of less than LE200 (US$36), Mohamed bemoaned his travelling costs and the time lost travelling.

“Almost a quarter of my income goes on transport… I work three days a week now.”

Many of the breadwinners of relocated families jointly rent small rooms near their places of work in the capital and visit their families in the new flats only on weekends.

Jobless

While few slum-dwellers are fishermen like Mohamed, most said moving outside the capital left them jobless.

Abdel Ra’ouf Abdel Monem, another resident of Istable Antar, earns a living by roaming the streets of Cairo on a donkey-drawn cart collecting scrap metal and plastic which, on an average day, he sells for about LE40 ($7). He and many others like him fear they will be cut off from their source of income if and when they are moved.

“Our jobs are here, our life is here. Why should we move?... The government can’t put us in the desert and then claim to have solved our problem,” he said.

Slums in Russia

In many slums the current goverment style is anarchy. The strongest will rule and weakest will die, this is direct result of the decision in 2040's to isolate the slum areas from 'living areas of the people'. Currently slum people are not even counted as 'people' when calculating population etc. The slum areas are estimated to hold some 8.000.000 people inside, only in the largest cities. The slums are protected by the cybernetized Russian army. The protection means that everyone trying to get out will be shot. Once this new system was established in 2040's it caused mass conflicts, but soon everyone noticed that it's futile to fight, as life in slums was not THAT bad. During last 15 years slums have become the worlds backup for internal organs, drug factories and all sorts of illegal bionic, cybernetics, and chemicals. Anything that can be considered as illegal somewhere, will be found somewhere in the Russian slums. Most of these 'enterprises' are run by different Mob groups, some with Corporate support, some without. Life expectancy in slums is 29,5 years, only.

Slums in Sub Saharan Africa

Almost 4 million children under the age of five die in sub-Saharan Africa every year.

For every 1,000 babies born 172 die – in countries like Canada the rate is 9 or lower.

The major causes of these largely preventable deaths are malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and AIDS-related diseases.

Additionally, many babies die in their first month because of complications during pregnancy and labour or from infections.

Eighty per cent of these children die at home without seeing a health worker, and most of these deaths could be prevented through basic interventions, clean water and sanitation.

AMREF's Work With Children
AMREF is helping to stop these needless deaths by preventing and managing common childhood illnesses at home and at primary care level.

In Afar Ethiopia, AMREF has supplied 72,500 mothers and children with mosquito nets, quadrupling the number of children sleeping under the nets to more than 80%. AMREF’s groundbreaking PHASE program has saved thousands of children from water-borne diseasse through education and installing clean sources of water in schools across the region.

AMREF is also preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and improving care, diagnosis and treatment for children living with HIV/AIDS.

AMREF is also supporting children who have been orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS by supporting community and family members to generate income to be able to pay for their school fees.

Slums in Spain

Spain is a good example of how the challenge of slums is not exclusive of developing countries. Indeed, despite that Spain has had an outstanding economic growth index in the years previous to the Crisis and its good average living standards, it is not a slum-free country. This is because numerous cities and towns have not been capable of ensuring all their residents’ right to the city. Every place has its own history of poor urbanizations, where thousands of people have been denied the right to develop themselves or to influence the cities’ development. There are cases like Madrid and Sevilla, where mostly gypsies live in extremely precarious and unsafe conditions, facing regular situations of racism and social exclusion. There are also cases in southern desert towns where tens of thousands of immigrants live in shacks amid the sea of plastic green houses, working (many of them illegally) in the anti-ecological production of the vegetables that are cheaply consumed by half of Europe, and are victims of random police-led violence. There are also many cases of degraded old housing blocks, in cities such as Palma de Mallorca, where the poorest live cramped in tiny flats, unable to pay water or electricity, and ready to work for food.


In most cases slum dwellers are part of traditionally discriminated groups, such as gypsies and immigrants. Most of Spanish towns’ slum clearance policies are strongly influenced by institutionalized social prejudices against such groups. In most cases this situation is addressed by dispersing the families in different government social housing blocks, trying to force them to “integrate” into the mainstream society. In spite of the lack of participation in the decision making processes that lead to resettlement, most slum residents prefer it than staying, tired of the social and physical problems that they face in slums. In many cases nothing is done due to the procedures that are implied in social housing policies, which do not fit the particularities of each poor neighborhood and family. In many cases public servants and even high-rank officials want to provide support to the urban poor, but they hardly manage to fit the bureaucratic procedures to what the urban poor would need to escape from poverty. The result is that Spain keeps developing at different speeds, and slums continue to be a living disgrace to its society as a whole

Mongolia's children and youth living in Slums

The Third National Nutrition Survey, conducted in 2004, identified that there are positive signs of declining underweight by 50% (12.4% in 2000 and 6.2% in 2004) and stunting by (27.4% in 1999 and 19.6% in 2004). However, there are still some micronutrient deficiency disorders existing among children. For instance, 22.9% of children under 5 are anemic (according to hemoglobin level) and 24% of children under 5 have 2 symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency. The key underlying causes of this change can be attributed to strengthening and improvement, with UNICEF support, of quality of growth promotion interventions at community levels with greater involvement of family members and local decision makers in the understanding of the factors related to malnutrition and the remedial measures to be taken.

According to the National MDG report, Mongolia is well on track in achieving most of the goals and targets with the exception of poverty reduction, malnutrition and maternal mortality targets. Surveys on current status of child malnutrition, learning achievement, water quality are underway and a comprehensive situation analysis of children will be finalized before the end of 2005.

Slums in Paris

Slums in Vincennes, Paris

In the woods of Vincennes at the foot of the French kings' castle more than 200 people live in sheds, huts or tents. A new shantytown in a chic green island in Paris. In plain sight of joggers and families out for a sunday stroll. These men are lost, excluded and at odds with society. These french men, veterans of rooming houses and squats have chosen the forest and not the streets. Most live alone in tents or makeshift shelters, the vegetation hiding them from the passersby on the footpaths nearby. Candles are used for lighting, firewood for cooking and alcohol to keep warm. A rustic existance at the gates of the nations' capital. The woods are a humid, hazardous and dangerous place. Theft and violence underline an every man for himself attitude. The outcasts of Vincennes are trespassers and liable to be evicted. However as long as they keep a low profile the authorities remain tolerant. To live destitute, stay hidden.

Regis, 49, four years in a hut. His shack is a very personal combination of branches and canvas covers. A true little house with pans hanging, a dresser, an old sofa and some newspapers. In the back, behind a screen, an igloo tent: his room. To give some color to his life, Regis hung two posters - Goya and Modigliani - and a Swiss flag. Showing the flag, he says: "Welcome to the Swiss Embassy!" Regis would like to claim an extraterritoriality status, to be finally clear. He has been homeless for eight years. "I have been expelled from my home. And the problems continued. I forgot everything from my past," he says. He learned to live without electricity nor water, with his two cats and his solitude. "I feel better here than in a public housing unit." Regis is nearly 50 and he's almost happy.

Jean, 64. Two years and a half in a hut. Jean has a belly as big as his laugh. And this former tiler laughs a lot with his homeless friends. He doesn't like that much walking around the wood, but he can spend hours and years under his patched up canvas sheet, chatting and setting the world to rights. He excluded himself from this world, after 15 years in the street. "We are wiser than it seems." In Vincennes, Jean feels "good and not good". He appreciates wild life, but regrets to have built his roof so close to a busy road. But he gave up on moving. "We don't camp in random places. There are more and more inhabitants in the wood." The Robinsons have also neighbour rules.

Slums in Bangladesh

Over half of Bangladesh’s children are living in poverty and there is widespread deprivation amongst them in the basic areas of food, sanitation and shelter, with limited ability to escape their circumstances, according to experts.

A new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Bangladesh found that 33 million children under 18 - around 56 percent of the child population - are currently living below the International Poverty Line, defined as disposable income of US$1 per person per day.

Bangladesh has a population of 140 million; 63 million or 44 percent of the total population are children.

Launched on 25 November, the UNICEF study on child poverty and disparities in Bangladesh was conducted by the Dhaka-based Human Development Research Centre (HDRC), a research and policy development organization.

It proposed a shift in the definition of poverty which moves away from a measurement based only on household income to also incorporate income poverty, deprivation and well-being.

“We have used seven indicators to measure the level of the deprivation of children. These are shelter, sanitation, water, information, food, education and health,” Abul Barkat, lead consultant for the HDRC study and professor of economics at Dhaka University, told IRIN.

This new approach presents a more holistic view of the situation, he said.

The study showed that 64 percent of children are deprived of sanitation, 57 percent are deprived of nutrition, 52 percent are deprived of information. Forty-one percent are deprived of shelter, 16 percent are deprived of healthcare and 8 percent are deprived of education.

The share of indigenous households with children suffering from at least one deprivation is considerably higher at 93 percent, compared to 58 percent of the majority Bengali households.

Bangladesh’s minority indigenous population is estimated to be around two million people or 1.5 percent of the population, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Slums in India

The Origins of Poverty In India
Many Indian children suffer from poverty; more than 50% of India's total population lives below the poverty line, and more than 40% of this population are children. Reasons for this are embedded in India's social structure: first children are taught to accept the conditions which produce poverty, and then they perpetuate those conditions. If they are poor, Indian children and their families will do anything they can in order to survive. Often, this means repeating for themselves in generating the conditions in which their ancestors came into poverty. We contend that the following three conditions have caused India's poverty for many generations: (1) traditional cultural values, (2) discrimination, and (3) the societal oppression of children's ability to create change. Children are first born into the experience of poverty. Then, they reproduce it.

As we have stated on our "Family" page, Indian families place tremendous emphasis on religious and cultural tradition. The Indian civilization has survived for hundreds and thousands of years because of complex, perpetual socialization practices where children are taught to accept the cultural values of their ancestors.

The experience of discrimination is another origin of poverty. First, there is a clear distinction between the traditional socialization of Indian boys and Indian girls. Parents teach their daughters to be passive, dependent, and subservient so that they will grow up to be obedient wives. In contrast, Indian parents prepare their boys to be independent caretakers and providers.

Indian children find themselves categorized, however, on additional bases such as by age, and by caste. Their caste is a community, as well as a socio-economic status, that they are born into. As we have stated before, Indian children, especially those in minority groups, learn not to value their own ideas, but rather to accept their poor fate and perpetuate India's trusted cultural traditions. The suppression of women, children, and lower class Indians significantly limits the amount of humans who may contribute to this nation's growth, and keeps many of these individuals impoverished.

Slums in Brazil

Violence in Brazil - Life in the Slums

"A stray bullet has no address" is a common phrase in Brazil's favelas (Portuguese for urban slums). The same could be said for the violence. All the residents—especially children—are vulnerable to the effects of living among drugs, gangs, and gunfire. Some say extreme poverty causes the violence in these slums. Other blame it on drugs, corruption, lack of education, or insufficient opportunities. Whatever the reason, Brazil has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and most of the victims are poor.


Joselita, 37, has lived in Salvador, Brazil, her whole life. She has noticed an increase in the violence since she was a girl. In the past couple of years alone, she has had a gun held to her head twice, her sons have seen people beaten just outside their home, and they have run for cover from gang warfare numerous times. "Everything's been calm for a week," says Joselita. "But things can start happening at any time." Joselita's main concern is how the violence will affect her five sons. "Drugs and violence affect children in different ways," says Marcia Nova, a World Vision sponsorship manager in Salvador, Brazil. Some of the effects include:


1. Physical danger: Children and their families are at risk of being caught in the crossfire between warring gangs.


2. Emotional: Being exposed to violence can cause fear and anxiety.


3. Gang involvement: Gang members hire children to deliver drugs or act as lookouts. This often leads children to doing and dealing drugs and to dropping out of school entirely.




In Salvador, Brazil, a World Vision vocational program is helping youth in the favelas stay in school and away from gangs. Funded through child sponsorship, the program enables 400 teens to participate in courses such as hairdressing, mechanics, art, electricity, music, and computers. Most of the participants are two to three grades behind in school. For 10 months, the students attend regular classes for half the day and join the extra activities for the other half. "This gives me reason to study," says Railson, 19, who is in the hairdressing course. "If I wasn't here, I would be on the streets. . . . Being in the extra courses made me realize I wanted to be someone in life." Canadians sponsor 10,500 children in Brazil.

Slums in Jamaica

Living in such suburbs as Cherry Gardens, Arcadia Gardens, and Forest Hills, the wealthy send their children to private schools and to universities abroad, and employ private security forces. Yet not far from these wealthy enclaves a significant number of poor Jamaicans live in squalor, with poor housing, limited food supply, and inadequate access to clean water, quality health care, or education. Water supplies are often polluted and violent youth gangs clash with police for control of the streets.
The wealth is distributed largely along racial lines, reflecting Jamaica's slave-plantation heritage. The descendants of black slaves tend to be among the poorest classes in Jamaica, while white and mixed-race descendants of plantation owners and traders tend to be better off. These extremes are reflected in the nation's distribution of income: in 1996 the wealthiest 20 percent of Jamaicans controlled 43.9 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 20 percent controlled only 7 percent. In fact, the poorest 60 percent controlled just 34.3 percent of wealth. Due in large part to the decline of services in urban slums, the percentage of people with access to safe water has declined from 96 percent in the period from 1982-85 to 70 percent in the period from 1990-96; access to sanitation facilities (plumbed toilets) has dropped from 91 percent to 74 percent in the same period.

Jamaica's rural poor also face difficult circumstances, for many workers must try to grow their own crops or participate in the informal economy —in some cases, the drug trade—in order to survive. Both the rural and urban poor have suffered from the long decline in the quality of social services provided to Jamaicans. Though the British built a well-developed health and education system on the island in the post-World



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Slums in Guatemala

Guatemala

Children are suffering from chronic and acute malnutrition which causes death. Education presents another problem for poor Guatemalans, as some parents call on their children to work long hours to contribute to the family income, preventing them from attending school. Unfortunately, children who have to work instead of attending school miss out on education that is almost always necessary for economic advancement. Although school attendance is compulsory for 6 years by government mandate, only 41 percent of school-age children in Guatemala attend classes, and only 55 percent of total population are literate

Poverty in America

"Poverty in America", to hear or read those three little words make me crunch. The greatest country in the world has a cancer which is poverty. How can that be and how come we haven't found solutions for the crisis. Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of "poor' Americans. Presidential candidate John Edwards claims that 37 million Americans currently "struggle with incredible poverty. "Edwards asserts that America's poor, who number " one in eight of us...do not have enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need,'and are forced to live in "terrible" circumstances. However, an examination of the living standards of the 37 million persons, whom The government defines as "poor," reveals that what Edwards calls "the plague" of American poverty might not be as "terrible" or "incredible" as candidate Edward's contends. This was in an article writing by Robert E. Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, PhD. Never the less, give or take a million or two, why are so many poor family living in America and kids are dropping out of school so they can work to support mom, dad and siblings.

Slums Why????

The role of government, to serve and proctect its people and border. Why so many officials ignore their duties to help their people. I think it's greed. These government officials seems to have something in common. Most of them have bank accounts in Switzerland. Whenever countries like USA, France, Britian, England, Canada , Australia ect.. give these third world country money to help their people, officials never distribute the money accordingly. Corruptions plagues those the less fortunate, they create warlords, gorilla fighters, cout de ta, revolutions ect.. We've came from so far but yet were so far away of building a perfect society. As long we have greed, I guess were going to have less a perfect government.

Slums of the Philippines

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - JULY 19: A Filipino boy stands in a polluted canal in the slums on July 19, 2005 in Manila, Philippines. Extreme poverty is commonplace in Manila where corruption, unemployment, and overpopulation are very serious problems. According to government statistics, the population of the Philippines is expected to rise to 85.2 million this year with an average of 5,800 babies being born daily. Many are calling for Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign since Arroyo has been attacked by an election scandal leaving her political future in turmoil. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Haiti's crisis

What happens to the boys who lives in the slums, when society thinks they are men. Without an education, unable to read or write and count how can anyone survive. That's the million dollar question. These boy become protitute and prey for tourist. Alot of them contracted the HIV virus that eventually become AIDS. Their no end in sight because it's an endless cycle. As long there's poverty, the cycle of crime and viliance will continue. These boys are taken advantage of because there's nothing else to do but to sell their body so they can buy foods to feed themselves. Other boys becomes criminals and or joins gangs. It's sad because these kids just don't know any better.

The affects of slums in Haiti

What happens when these girls become young ladies. Without an education, a job and home. What become of the young pupils. Well, the lucky ones would get married and mistreat by thier husband and the so unfortunate young ladies would become prostitute because that's the only way they can live. Already at a disavantage, with the lack of jobs in their country and respect for women ( women are treated as second rate), these young ladies are trap in a cycle that leaves them hopelessy handicap by society. They feel betrayed and unwanted by their surronding and scar for life. The young pupils doesn't know how to break the chain of endless cycle. It's up to us an God fearing people to stand up and break the cycle.

Somalia's slums

These children future looks bleak because the lack of schools, educations or support from their government or peers. Their main concern or goal is their next feeding because your next meal may not come at all because the don't have a job so they can have a salary to purchase their necessaties. Society closes their eyes to reality and yet they preach the gospel. We have more than enough resource today to end hunger and concentrate on a better tomorow . Unfortunately, we are inprisoned by greed. It's never enough and the people who suffers the most are the children of the world.