What is it like to live on the streets? An estimated 100 million people are homeless around the world. And those are the ones who are counted; a similar number is not thought to be part of any official statistic. To get a sense of what their lives are like, World Have Your Say spent time on the streets of Los Angeles, Islamabad, Nairobi, Rio and London to hear a series of intimate and revealing personal stories.

Shanaz is living in a small tent in Islamabad with her husband and seven children. “We just survive,” she says. “What am I supposed to expect for the future of my children?”

“I’ve got a nice little spot on the street,” Brant explains. He has been living on Skid Row in LA for 16 years, on and off. “I appreciate what I have.”

In Nairobi, they meet a woman who went from drug user to doctor. “Growing up as a street child I saw how health was an issue. I saw it as a platform to solve some of those problems. People can be moved from the street; you can never take away their hope. ”

(Photo: Girls living in a 'tent city' in Islamabad, Pakistan)
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