They’re called niños de la calle or children of the streets. In Peru it is estimated there are at least 5,000 street children in Lima alone. I was stunned to find out that many live on the streets even though many have families. In the poorer communities broken families are common. Many women get pregnant young and often have children with multiple partners. Because abuse is not uncommon, many children find refuge in the streets to get away from the verbal, physical and sexual abuse that occurs from stepfathers and other family members.

As they struggle with their daily lives and the feelings of rejection, boredom and hopelessness, many turn to drugs the cheapest and most accessible of which is Terokal, an industrial glue with the consistency of rubber cement. For each hit they simply use a small plastic bag, dab the inside with a bit of glue, add a little spit to keep the glue from drying too quickly and then inhale.

Both the boys and the girls that live in the streets are susceptible to exploitation, but especially the girls. With little education and very few means they are often targeted for prostitution. Some of the girls forced into prostitution are as young as 12. With it comes the risks of disease and pregnancy. Being pregnant at 15 or 16 is not uncommon. For some of the girls they continue to work even when they are pregnant. When I first met the girls on the streets I was surprised how many brought their babies out at night. They would often service a client and just pass their baby for a friend who takes care of the baby for a short while.

Many new moms are back out on the streets a week or to if not a few days after they give birth. Even though some may not immediately go back to work the street where they work at night is their world. That’s where their friends are and that’s where they socialize. For many of the girls the streets where they work has become their world.

The Romani, or Gypsies, are an ethnic group that often conjures negative feelings when mentioned. They are widely dispersed throughout Europe, speak a number of dialects and number only a few million. As an avid traveler we are often told to be wary of gypsies who individually or through a complex team of people have ways of stealing from tourists often right from under their nose.

To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect of the Romani. Walking into Sulukule it was clear that demolition was well underway. Rumors were rampant that the end was near but we did not know when. The city had started to cut water and other utilities to the small community, a sign bulldozers were coming. A small group of families remained, committed to staying because simply they had nowhere to go. Each day I would arrive early and have tea with old men at their local tea house. Many residents were born in Sulukule and their only concern was where their family would go, how they could survive. Every person has a basic right to housing and even the marginalized and stereotyped have a right to a home to raise their family. The community was by no means well-to-do. To the municipality they were an eye sore.

For centuries the Romani ran entertainment houses which were popular tourist attractions because of their signing and dancing. In 1992 when they closed down the entertainment houses it was under the premise that they didn’t pay taxes. According to residents the government would collect “informal” taxes and simply not record them or give account. There were also accusations that the entertainment houses were a front for illegal activity like prostitution and drugs. Fueled by the stereotypes and other motives municipality decided that enough was enough and tried to make them leave by ending their livelihood. Income directly or indirectly generated from the entertainment houses was the main source of revenue for the entire community. Local residents worked as musicians, dancers, cooks and waiters for these houses. Others started markets, restaurants and stores to also cater to the needs of the tourist industry. Sulukule was a self-contained and self-sustaining community.

The Roma are still identified under a 1934 law that puts them in the same class as anarchists, spies, and expatriates according to this law. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is authorized for the expulsions of the Gypsies, who are stateless or citizens of a foreign state, and of the foreigner nomads, who are not affiliated with Turkish culture. With this premise the government began to destroy the 571 homes which were legally registered under the imar affi, a process which essentially gave the Romani rights to the land on which they were living. Fatih Mayor Mustafa Demir planned to replace all the homes with “Ottoman-style housing” and claimed that the Sulukule urban renewal project is the “most social project in the world.”

In 2006, another Roma neighborhood Küçükbakkalköy was bulldozed. Three years later most of the residents were still homeless or living in impromptu settlements at the site. In May 2009 the bulldozers came again to Sulukule one last time to finish the job they started in 2006. All of the residents have been forced to leave. Some were forced to live on the streets and others have found temporary residence with family.

Whatever you may think of the Romani, every human being should be treated with dignity and respect. In this day and age to see people displaced because of their ethnicity or financial status is inexcusable.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the transition from socialist governance to a democratic system has brought with it a myriad of problems for Kyrgyzstan. Especially concerning is the growth of the homeless population and declining health status and access to health care. Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in the world, second poorest in Central Asia. A World Bank report in September 2007 showed that 43.1 percent of Kyrgyz people lived in poverty in 2005, of which 11 percent were deemed to be living in extreme poverty. It is estimated that food prices rose 25 percent from January to September 2008. A correspondent of the newspaper “Vecherniy Bishkek” reports that among the homeless throughout Kyrgyzstan, 10 people are dying every few days. At 5 soms ($0.12), for less than the price of bread, you can stay in a warm shelter, but even that is too expensive for some.

Before coming to Kyrgyzstan I had heard that many homeless were forced to live underground. As impossible as it sounded I was curious to find out the truth. Winters can be harsh in Kyrgyzstan and at night it is not uncommon for the temperature to drop below freezing. Many homeless die because of exposure and those that survive are constantly at risk for for getting frostbite. To avoid frostbite many seek the refuge and unfortunately many times it is underneath a manhole. They are often infested with rats and is wall to wall rubbish and feces. In 2004 the UN cited Kyrgyzstan for human rights violations, not taking care of its homeless population. Because there was also an increasing number of street children, the unfortunate consequence was that many homeless children were rounded up and forced into state institutions where they are often mistreated. For the adult homeless they are generally ignored. The winter I was there the government’s only response was to open an abandoned building in the middle of Bishkek. Smoke-filled, dirty and without any water or bathroom facilities it was hardly a refuge but at least they wouldn’t freeze.

It was there that I met a small group of dedicated Christians helping those the government would rather ignore. They traveled the streets daily giving basic medical care to the homeless, cleaning wounds and giving medicine and food. They fought to open a more permanent facility where they could provide more medical care but the government quickly closed them down because they didn’t want them to affect their neighbor’s home prices. In spite of the setback while I was there they had found another facility farther out of the city and had restarted the medical clinic. There the homeless could bathe and exchange their filthy clothes as well as receive a hot meal and medical care, everything from basic first aid to minor surgery.

The homeless are from all walks of life, history teachers, cab drivers, economists, business owners. All are hard working but because some have fallen on hard times and there is no one they can turn to for any help. Once they become homeless they are stigmatized by society and this rejection only pushes them farther into isolation. One day when working with one of the locals at the clinic we were told about a homeless man who had died inside a manhole. While we were a few hundred yards away we could already smell the body. He had died about a month earlier. When the police arrived they wanted nothing to do with him and didn’t even want to touch the body. They tried to force the other homeless to retrieve their friend’s body. Ultimately my friend and I removed the body. Not only did he die alone but even in his death the local police would not treat him with any diginity