1 Million children are sold each year into illegal sex trade.
8,500 of them are infected with HIV/AIDs daily.
30,500 Children under the age of 5 die from preventable diseases caused by things such as unsafe drinking water every day.
Around the world, 600 million children live in poverty.Approximately 250 million of them serve as child laborers—working in hazardous mines, as sex slaves, or as child soldiers.An estimated one-third of all children born around the world are never registered.These invisible children can be swept away into a world of sexual slavery without anyone knowing they existed at all.Children, 100 million of them, live these tortured lives made even worse by the fact that they have no roof over their heads, no home, but suffer out in the open streets with no protection.
100,000,000 Children
100,000,000 Names
100,000,000 Forgotten Birthdays
One hundred million stories of abuse, fear, heartbreak, and abandonment.Each of their stories is different, but they all share one thing in common: their tragic stories will break the heart of anyone who will hear them.Some of them have been abused by their own parents, physically, emotionally, and sexually and they have had to run to the streets to escape it.Some of their parents were alcoholics.Some were addicted to drugs.Some of their parents died young, leaving them alone in the world when no one wanted to take them in.At some point, they have all shared this in common: they are unwanted.Imagine that your mother drops you off at the park while she goes to work, like she has done many times before, but this time she never comes back for you.Perhaps your father goes out for a drink one day and never returns, leaving you with nine siblings under the age of eleven to care for.Or perhaps your father dies, your mother can't support you, and your uncle refuses to take you.You are alone.
Once on the streets, a child's story only becomes more tragic.They are forced, out of desperation for food, to beg, steal, and commit other crimes.They are viewed as a nuisance.Some countries have set up "death squads" whose sole job is to "clean up the city" by shooting street children.In Colombia, in 1993 alone, 2,190 children where shot.Street kids are raped and beaten by the authorities who should be protecting them, by members of society, and by other street kids.Daily they live with the knowledge that anyone who approaches them could easily be their next attacker, their next rapist.No one hears their cries.No one feels their pain.No one bandages their wounds.They are entirely unwanted.To numb the emotional pain, the cold, and the constant hunger, most will begin sniffing glue.But even their one escape, the glue, will take its toll on them as it steals their ability to think and speak coherently.
They are called "the disposables."They are entirely unwanted.They may live their entire lives without ever feeling loved.They are denied their rights and justice.They are viewed as nothing more than a problem to society.
