More street kids in Ambon

AMBON, Maluku: Evidence of the deepening impact of the crisis was revealed here yesterday when it was disclosed that the number of street kids in the city had nearly doubled in the past five months.

The local office of the Ministry of Social Affairs said in February there were 286 known streets children in the provincial capital. Now there are more than 500.

These numbers are a significant jump from September 1997 when there were 211 children living on the streets.

Fachri Siregar, head of the social affairs office, said yesterday that it was especially concerning compared to other cities in the country in terms of the size of the population.

He said that street kids now make up 0.17 percent of the total population of Ambon which is 289,000.

As a comparison, in Bandung, West Java, the 3,000 street children make up only 0.03 percent of the total population of eight million, Antara reported.

Fachri said the primary reason for the sharp rise was the worsening economic situation in the province.