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This article is divided into seven sections randomly organized to address specific issues related to poor and destitute children in Sierra Leone. The contents are primarily flavored by the work and implementation dynamics of a small non-profit organization trying to make a dent in the welfare and upkeep of some of Sierra Leone's poor children. Sometimes the activities of our organization also touch the lives of adults, particularly when these adults are so poor that they are unable to provide for themselves and their children. The first section gives an introduction. The second section describes the country in geographical, educational, and socio-economic contexts. The third provides snapshots or vignettes of what it means to be poor and the realities of working among the poor in Sierra Leone. In the fourth section, we discuss the nature of child poverty in the country. Section five discusses probable contributions made by the state towards child poverty in Sierra Leone. Section six narrates the nature of the work done by the Leonenet Street Children Project.¹ Recommendations are made in section seven on what needs to be done to ameliorate the situation.

Women and children compose the overwhelming majority of the people of the world in poverty across the globe. Suffer the LittleChildren: National and International Dimensions of Child Poverty and Public Policy, examines the burden of poverty on children, and the implications of that poverty upon the lives and future mobility of generations of children. One of the best aspects of this body of work is that it places the problem of child poverty in international context. In essence, the universality of child poverty is illuminated as well as the relationship between women's status and child poverty and, the greater likelihood that children of color, in particular, across the globe will live in poverty.