A fifteen year old girl should be going to high school, singing in the choir, learning to cook and dreaming of her future.

For fifteen year old Manase there is no high school, no singing and very little food to eat. She doesn't think about the future beyond where she will sleep tonight. Both of Manase's parents died five years ago. Since that tragic time Manase has been alone and homeless, struggling to survive on the streets of Lusaka, Zambia's capitol city.

After living so long in the sub-culture of the streets, Manase knows how to beg, she has learned which garbage cans are likely to have the best food and she is street wise enough to know she risks her life every time she prostitutes herself. But the slow death of AIDS seems so very far in her foggy future, while the hunger pangs of starvation demand immediate satisfaction.

Just after Christmas this year Manase gave birth to a baby boy, Joseph. It is almost impossible for an infant to survive on the urban African streets. Because Joseph lacked basic things like clothing, milk and protection from the elements, he was not far from becoming another preventable infant death statistic. When the social worker brought Joseph to House of Moses, he was severely malnourished and covered with open sores.

Joseph is quickly healing. He will soon be strong enough to be adopted; welcomed into his new, forever family. The cycle of poverty and death has been stopped for this young life and he has bright hope for the future.

Vanice and Valerie are sisters, six and eight years old. Like Manase, these little girls were left without any family when their parents died last year. They could easily have become trapped, just like Manase had, homeless, on the streets. Instead, they found help at House of Martha, our crisis nursery in Lusaka's Kanyama Compound. They are prospering in this special home, going to school at the Dr. Terry Wood Memorial Classroom, singing with their friends and learning to cook.

Just like Joseph, these sisters will soon be ready to join an adoptive family. It is more difficult to find adoptive families for older children, but the light and promise evident in the eyes of these sisters would make them treasured members of their new family.

UNICEF estimates there are more than 75,000 children living on the streets in Zambia. Some of these children are found on the streets only during the day, trying to earn money. At night, they return home to sleep. Others are making homes there. The children beg or do odd jobs such as watching cars, sweeping and carrying loads; others become involved in prostitution. Formerly, most of the children living on the street were boys. But that is changing. Increasingly, girls are also spending nights on the street.

There are many reasons why street children may not be able to return home. They may have lost their family to AIDS, been abused, or their family may be too poor to care for them. The World Bank estimates that 73% of Zambians live on less than $1 a day. According to a recent study by Unicef on orphaned and vulnerable children, the number of street children is likely to increase in the next couple of years as Aids claims the lives of their parents. There are currently about one million Zambians living with HIV, and 94,000 people die every year from Aids-related diseases.