Street-based services to improve street children’s health and safety are urgently needed in Khartoum. Reintegration programs may help large numbers of children voluntarily and permanently leave the streets. Advocacy campaigns and collaborative efforts with the police, judiciary, and legislature show promise, but such efforts need to be intensified. Daily life for most Khartoum street children in Sudan involved work to earn money and food, recreation and socializing with peer substance abuse, and sometimes physical or sexual violence. Street children routinely abused glue for reasons that were presented both positively and negatively. The threat of sexual abuse was commonplace and difficult to avoid, particularly for girls, most of whom had been raped by street boys, police, and/or other adult men multiple times. Both boys and girls feared capture, beating, and incarceration by authorities. Neither small residency programs nor large government camps adequately met most street children’s needs. There are estimated to be tens of millions of street children worldwide, and the numbers are most likely increasing with growing urbanization and globalization. It is important to understand the lives of street children both to improve their conditions while on the streets, and to help them successfully leave the street. In 2000-2001, eight researchers conducted participant observations for 7 weeks. Twenty groups of children engaged in role-plays and drawing activities and over 500 children participated in qualitative groups and individual interviews. Eight-hundred and seventy-two current and former street children were surveyed. References