Getty Images for Stern
30 April, 2006
Esther Yandakwa (9) smokes a cigarette while her friends help her with her hair. Esther is homeless and a sex worker, charging her clients as little as US$1. Conflict, internal displacement and HIV/Aids have long disrupted life in the DRC. Tens of thousands of child refugees, war orphans, and children abandoned by their families, live on the streets in Kinshasa and other urban areas around the country.