Abstract

Introduction: Every street child has a reason for being in the street; usually Street children are the casualties of economic growth, war, poverty, loss of traditional value, domestic violence, physical and mental abuse. Moreover, there are many children are lured by the promise of excitement and freedom. They are susceptible to many diseases such as anemia, malaria and opportunistic infection.

 Purpose: The study aims to investigate the occurrence of anaemia among homeless street children. Materials and Methods: In this comparative community-based study, two groups of children from Khartoum State (n = 100) were randomly selected to participate, the homeless (street) children (n= 50) and resident children in Sudanese governmental rehabilitation center (Tayba Rehabilitation Center (TRC)) (n =50). All children were clinically examined for anemia. Venous blood samples were collected from all participants and complete blood count (CBC) for all samples were performed and analyzed by Sysmex Haematological analyzer. In addition to that peripheral blood picture were examined for each sample using light microscope (×100 oil immersion lens) Discussion and Major Findings:  the study showed statistically significant difference (p ? 0.05) with regard to reduction in their haemoglobin percentage (HGB %) and anemic children by Packed Cell Volume (PCV) in the resident children of Tayba Rehabilitation Center (TRC) (58% and 80%) and the homeless (street) children (76% and 94%) respectively. Conclusion: Children are the first victims of war; displacement, malnutrition, and poverty were found to be the main cause for many diseases, such as anaemia which almost equally distributed among the subjects of the two groups regardless of their life style. The study recommends the governmental and nongovernmental organization to cater for those children through provision of food, shelter and medical care. Also, the researcher recommends further study with larger sample size to be conducted to examine the different types of anemia prevalent among street children.