Hope In Hard Places: Meet Thirteen-Year-Old Musa

Around the world today, children are more than twice as likely as adults to live in extreme poverty, but there is hope in hard places.

One billion children currently lack at least one of these life essentials: clean water, food, shelter, access to healthcare.

Imagine a child like thirteen-year-old Musa. Orphaned, Musa lives with his aunt when he is not on the streets; his parents died from AIDS. Musa is one of over a million slum dwellers crowded into less than one square mile.

Musa has never had electricity, medical care, or adequate water and food.

Each day this young man fights to meet the basic needs of survival, but the odds are stacked against him. His best chance is to join a street gang, but that comes with its own dangers.

By this age, most children have been exposed—and addicted—to the deadly but cheap drugs that are more available on the streets than food. The chances are high that Musa will suffer sexual abuse and exploitation, be coerced into child labor, or trafficked as a soldier, slave, or sex worker.

Many of Musa’s friends have disappeared over the years. Some were sold as domestic workers, others are imprisoned in sweatshops and factories with little or no pay, choice, or escape.

One billion children like Musa are vulnerable today to the dangers of extreme poverty, struggling through the many layers of risk consuming our precious children.

They live unseen. Their stories are unknown.

But with your partnership, children who were once invisible, overlooked and forgotten can be seen, known and loved. Bring hope to hard places by visiting awana.org/hope.

Info taken from Unicef, National Center for Children in Poverty, Children.org, care.org, plos.org