Action for the Care and Development of the Poor in the Philippines (ACAP) is a non-profit organization based in Manila, the Philippines. We work to empower marginalized youth through a combination of education, social development and health and nutritional feeding programs.

The situation of street children in the Philippines is a crisis. In Manila alone, there are at least 370,000 children aged 0-18 living on the street. So many small children and adolescents living or working on the street, their basic human rights being violated on a daily basis.

They’re exposed to physical danger and violence, malnutrition, sexual abuse, online sexual exploitation, arbitrary detention and severe psychological distress. More recently, some have been victims of the extrajudicial killings connected to the ‘war on drugs’, and have been affected by the lowering of the minimum age at which a child can be criminally tried in court.

The impact of living – growing up – on the streets is immeasurable. The most effective way to lift children out of poverty – and, importantly, to break the cycle of poverty – is through education and the financial and social independence that it creates.