Living on the Street

What is it like to live on the streets? An estimated 100 million people are homeless around the world. And those are the ones who are counted; a similar number is not thought to be part of any official statistic. To get a sense of what their lives are like, World Have Your Say spent time on the streets of Los Angeles, Islamabad, Nairobi, Rio and London to hear a series of intimate and revealing personal stories.

Shanaz is living in a small tent in Islamabad with her husband and seven children. “We just survive,” she says. “What am I supposed to expect for the future of my children?”

“I’ve got a nice little spot on the street,” Brant explains. He has been living on Skid Row in LA for 16 years, on and off. “I appreciate what I have.”

In Nairobi, they meet a woman who went from drug user to doctor. “Growing up as a street child I saw how health was an issue. I saw it as a platform to solve some of those problems. People can be moved from the street; you can never take away their hope. ”

(Photo: Girls living in a 'tent city' in Islamabad, Pakistan)
(Credit: BBC photo)