He is a small boy of about eleven. He lives in a large city in a poor West African country. He is dressed in ragged shorts and a T-shirt, most likely many sizes too large. He is barefoot with one infected toe. The city streets are hard on toes. At night he sleeps on the street and wakes at dawn to begin the day begging for his breakfast.

Generally he is kindly treated in the streets and is given food enough to survive, but his health suffers. He is underweight and undersize for his age and has intestinal parasites and skin problems such as scabies and ringworm. When he has more serious diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis, they remain untreated.

He has not seen his family for a year or two, since he left his distant rural village, but he keeps in touch through a network of friends and relatives he sees from time to time. At home the family is large - five or six brothers and sisters - too large for all to be taken care of in these difficult times. He misses his family and longs for the day when he will have saved enough from his begging to go home with gifts for them. He wants to buy cloth for his mother and a radio for his father. For himself he will buy clothes and a portable tape player, but not until just before he leaves the city since they will only attract thieves.

Some of his friends sniff solvents and he is tempted. When you're a hungry eleven-year-old boy in the night street, morning seems very far away and a little oblivion is hard to resist.

He would like to wear clean clothes, go to school every day and not have to worry about the next meal. And although a realistic adult would dismiss this as an impossible dream, children surely have the right to such dreams.

He is a good boy, willing and eager to find ways to be of use. He unselfconsciously rewards a small gift with a big smile and the blessing of Allah. There is something of heaven in the smile as well as in the blessing.

• To see more background information on the almudos, click HERE.
• NEW! (November 2002) Report on the Almudos of Senegal, by Nina Coon.
• To read about what inspired this project, click HERE.