A stitch in time: street children learn a trade

Thanda sews a shirt during a vocational training session
© UNICEF Myanmar/2012/Andy Brown

Sixteen-year-old Thanda* has spent much of her life living and working on the streets of Yangon, capital of Myanmar. She is a small, serious teenager in a blue polo shirt and traditional longyi skirt. Thanda’s father is a manual labourer and her mother is a washer woman. She has seven siblings. When the family earns enough, they live in bamboo hut outside town. But other times they can’t afford the rent and have to live on the streets.