REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAIRO -- "My mother is dead and my father is a street shoe polisher, so I sell tissue packs at the neighborhood' s coffee shops to help with home expenses," said Asmaa, an 11-year-old vendor from one of Egypt's Giza impoverished neighborhoods.
Asmaa has been moving from a local coffee shop to another at Boulak el-Dakrour slum, with untidy hair and unclean gray pullover, red training pants and a plastic pair of slippers, trying to sell to those busy talking, watching TV or playing dominoes or backgammon some tissue packs to go back home with a few pounds (around one U.S. dollar or so) at the end of the day.
"I am in the fourth grade of elementary school and I wish one day we live better and I dream of becoming a doctor when I grow up, " said the desperate small girl who has four younger brothers and sisters to help.
The little vendor is just one of 16.7 million Egyptian children who are struggling with poverty, according to a recent report from the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
"We have neither relatives nor friends to visit us, care about us or even ask about us," Asmaa said with an innocent childish voice full of wish and sorrow.
She said her mother died two years ago and that her grandmother, who has chronic heart conditions, help with household work like cleaning and cocking for her and her younger siblings.
Asmaa wished other children treated her as equal, as they often stay away from her, and refuse to play with her due to her poor looks.
"They call me the unclean beggar," the child vendor said, referring to the rejection of other kids when she asks to play with them or even share the swing set in the street with them. "People really do not treat us well. I wish they did," Asmaa said.
The innocent girl's little mind had to comprehend that her extreme poverty, which led to her poor looks and uncleanness, is the main reason for her being rejected by her peers and ill-treated by merciless adults.
In a country with a growing rate of sexual harassment, Asmaa could be, and has been, subjected to pedophiles and child molesters but she always ran away from them and never gave them a chance. "I understand this is wrong," she said.
"An old man at one of the coffee shops always asked me for a kiss, saying he was like my grandfather, but I always said no and scolded him," said the little vendor.
"In 2012/13, 28.8 percent of Egypt's children (aged 0-17) were living in extreme monetary poverty, corresponding to around 9.2 million children," the report jointly prepared by the CAPMAS and the UNICEF continued.
"An additional 7.5 million children were vulnerable to extreme poverty, living somewhere between the national lower and upper poverty lines," it added.
About half of Egypt's overall 90-million population lives in poverty, with 26.3 percent living in extreme poverty, which shows that the poverty rate among children is higher than that among adults.
Due to the alarming study, the CAPMAS warns that "latest evidence highlights the urgent need for effective action to address child poverty across the country."
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