Street children is a term for children experiencing homelessness who live on the streets of a city, town or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids and street youth; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF’s concept of boys and girls, aged under eighteen years, for whom "the street" (including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland) has become home and/or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised.
Female street children are sometimes called gamines, a term that is also used for Colombian street children of either gender.
Some street children, notably in more developed nations, are part of a subcategory called thrownaway children who are children that have been forced to leave home. Thrownaway children are more likely to come from single-parent homes. Street children are often subject to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or, in extreme cases, murder by "clean-up squads" that have been hired by local businesses or police. In Western societies, such children are sometimes treated as homeless children rather than criminals or beggars.
Street Child is a debut album by Mexican alternative rock vocalist, Elan. It contains her biggest hit, Midnight.
Ricardo Burgos from Sony Music called Street Child "a history making release in Latin America".
Street Child
We are the little ones who roam the underbelly
Of the streets that normal people walk
Wrong side of the tracks, the deep end of the ocean
The color of the gypsies in the shadow night
Darkness inside out seeps into your veins
Listen to the rain
The only thing keeping you alive
Is the gracious night
(Coro:)
Let me go, let me sleep until forever
Let me close my eyes and hide until the never
Let me go, let me slip into the sky
And tiptoe into madness in a hollow cry
'Cause no one ever told me I committed any crime
And no one ever told me how I went blind
And all I ever wanted was a free mind
A guiltless conscience and a place where I could fly
I threw my cards out on the table
And I put my neck out on the line
I took the verdict I was handed
And now I've served my time
(Coro) (x2)