ABSTRACT
Estimates of the number of street children throughout Central and South America vary widely, but the United Nations Children's Fund figure of 40 million is the most generally accepted. Throughout Latin America, meninos de rua or ninos de la calle represent the new face of child labour–youths working in the urban informal sector. In fact, children of the street are more typically associated with drug sales, petty theft, prostitution, and gang activity. Anecdotal accounts of drug abuse among street youths in Brazil are commonplace. Regardless of whether they reported any use of illegal drugs, street children have frequently reported engaging in risky sexual behaviours. Risk of exposure to human immunodeficiency virus is rapidly becoming an area of concern because of the large number of street youths engaging in unprotected sexual acts, both remunerated and non-remunerated. Street studies in Rio de Janeiro have concluded that a "second shift" of children are visible on the streets at night.
