Street Children (Hansard, 19 January 2004)

§ Mr. Bercow
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much money is being provided by his Department to tackle the problem of street children in Russia in 2003–04. [148121]

Mr. Gareth Thomas
In 2003–04 DFID is spending £164,500 to tackle the problem of street children in Russia, of which £89,000 is committed under the project "Supporting Vulnerable Children in Ekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Oblast". The project purpose is to improve the quality of life for vulnerable children by providing family-focused, rather than institutional, care. The remaining £75,000 is committed under a number of-small projects funded through the Health and Social Care Partnership Scheme. These projects include drug and alcohol awareness programmes for street children, activities to prevent homelessness and the development of foster care.

§ Mr. Bercow
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many street children there are in(a) Asia, (b) Africa, (c) Latin America, the Caribbean and the overseas territories and (d) the Middle East. [148129]

§ Hilary Benn
There are no internationally agreed definitions of street children and estimates of total numbers are unreliable and patchy. For all areas, numbers are therefore very difficult to assess.
For Asia I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend for Harrow West on 15 January Official Report column 831W.
In Africa street children form a proportion of the 300 million people that live in extreme poverty (on less than $1 per day, figure relates to 1999). Across Africa we know that some 50 million girls and boys are out of school (UNESCO). Some of these will be street children.
951W
In Latin America street children again form a proportion of the 135 million people that live in poverty (on less than $2 per day). There are some 2 million children out of school at primary level and some of these will be street children.
As far as DFID is aware there are no street children in the British Overseas Territories. There is no comprehensive date available for numbers of street children in the Caribbean.
The numbers of street children in the Middle East region as a whole is difficult to assess although UNICEF estimate that there are in excess of 1 million street children in Cairo alone. Where children are particularly vulnerable, for instance Iraq, UNICEF is undertaking research that will assist the government and international donor community efforts to meet their needs.