ABSTRACT
What makes a child a street child? Poverty as well as abuse in home communities and families are usually cited as key contributory factors, and in Southern Africa much has been written about HIV/AIDS in loosening family ties and creating a generation of orphans, many of whom feel compelled to migrate to the cities and look for work and stability and end up living and/or working on the streets. But the term “street child” is taken for granted in this response, and the impression is created that street children constitute a relatively fixed and homogenous group.
