 | | CARE AND PROTECTION
"I have become a beggar"
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to care and protection, preferably in their own family. If this is lacking the government should provide social security.
Article 26 of the Convention states a government should, "recognise for every child the right to benefit from social security... the benefits should... be granted, taking into account the resources and the circumstances of the child and persons having responsibility for the maintenance of the child..."
In Jean's case, the situation is actually reversed. This 14-year-old boy from Rwanda is responsible for looking after an adult. Jean's parents were both killed in the Rwandan war and genocide. His grandmother survived.
During 1994, Rwanda experienced a three-month campaign of mass murder. In April 1994, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a military campaign to control the country. By July, at least 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus had been brutally massacred.
In the past, government officials and genocide survivors have talked of over 1 million deaths, but researchers and historians outside of Rwanda believe the figure to be lower.
During the genocide, many children were separated from their parents. Jean is just one of them. Homeless, he joins thousands of children who live on the streets.
According to a report by Radio Netherlands, the Rwandan authorities estimate there are approximately 3,000 to 3,500 children living on the streets in the country. Half of them live in the capital Kigali.
Some of these children have lost their parents to disease in refugee camps; others, to the Aids epidemic.
On the streets, children like Jean are exposed to hunger, disease and violence. | |  Listen to Jean's story in Kinyarwanda | | 
My name is Jean and I am a child from Rwanda.
I am a street child. I have been forced to live on the street. My main problem is finding food and that is why I have become a beggar. While other children in Rwanda have got people to help them and send them to school, I have no choice but to sleep on the street.
When it rains, I wake up the following morning suffering from malaria and with spots all over my skin.
Sometimes I accidentally cut myself while looking for food but I don't have the means to get medical help.
I am just 14 years old. I was very young when my parents died, and I have nowhere to go.
I help my grandmother. Whatever money I get, I give it to my grandmother to buy food.
Some nights we go hungry and I have to come out to look for food, but if the police catch us, they beat us, and even put us in jail, and then nobody brings us food.
It is really sad for us to look after adults when we are only children. We want the government or other people of goodwill to help us.  | | | Listen to Jean's story in Kinyarwanda | | |  |  |
 During the confusion of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, many children were separated from their parents.
Many were flown to safety by international charities and have since been adopted by several countries in Europe - Italy, Belgium and France. Others fled to nearby African countries.
In 2000, the Rwandan government began an appeal to secure the return of an estimated 30,000 children. Some of those children have surviving relatives.
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