ASIA/PAKISTAN – Children do not go to school in order to beg in the street

Karachi (Agenzia Fides) - In Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of school-age boys and girls live and work in the street, earning a few cents a day to help their poor families. Among the initiatives to help these children, the non-profit organization The Pakistani Citizen Foundation (CTF), has organized a school to introduce them to books and pens within the Behram Rustomji campus, in Pipri village, 45 kilometers from Sukkur, the third largest city in Sindh province. In Pipri over 95% of the approximately 1,000 families live on alms. The CTF, created in 1995, now runs 1,060 centers throughout the Country and welcomes children belonging to marginalized communities. Poverty and illiteracy are among the biggest obstacles to development in Pakistan. Currently, it is estimated that more than 6 and a half million children do not go to school, and 62% are females. Of the approximately 21.4 million school-age children enrolled in schools, only 66% will stay until the end, while 33.2% will abandon their studies before completing their primary level. The situation is even worse for street children, who in order to help their families are forced to beg on the streets. According to estimates by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, about a half million children live and work on the streets in the country. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 28/05/2015)