Bosasso, Somalia - Photo from Wikimedia Commons

March 10, 2010: They shine shoes, wash cars, carry loads, clean homes. Unprotected at night, many of them are scarred by abuse and physical violence. Some have turned to drug abuse. They are malnourished. They suffer from TB and skin diseases.

These children -- some 5,000 of them -- have been forced to live or work on the streets of Bosasso, a port in northeastern Somalia that sits on the Gulf of Aden. According to the UN's IRIN news service, local government and child protection officials say that the ranks of such children are swelling.

These are the kinds of children that SOS Children's Villages seeks to protect through its nearly 500 villages in 132 countries. By offering orphaned and abandoned children a warm, clean home, a loving SOS mother, a full stomach, as well as an education and medical care, SOS brings hope to children who have none.

SOS Children's Villages in Somalia Since Early 1980s

SOS has been running a Children's Village in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, for decades. Despite the intermittent forced closings and relocations that are characteristic of a region wracked by long-time civil war, local SOS Children's Villages staff have persisted in keeping the children under its care safe.

In today's Somalia, part of the increase in Bosasso's street children is tied to families' northern migration from south-central Somalia. During the journey to Bari, the region of Somalia that houses Bosasso, some children were separated from their parents. But an increasing number of street children are local, according to Muse Ghele, Bari's governor. The children who have homes to return to at night are doing odd jobs to help support their families, deeply impoverished by civil war, drought, and joblessness.

Helping Children and Mothers in Somalia

SOS-Mogadishu doesn't have the capacity to care for every Somalian child in need. But for decades it has provided essential services for children and mothers who would otherwise go entirely without education and medical attention. Its schools, maternity and gynecological hospital, pediatric hospital, and nurse training school are open to all, and have often been the only places to which local families can turn. No child should have to live on the streets. Help SOS Children's Villages help Somalia's vulnerable children. Sponsor disaster orphans today.