{"word_count": 106, "character_count": 674}
Dar es Salaam, East Africa&#039;s fastest growing city and home to more than a quarter of Tanzania&#039;s population, is facing a crisis. Named a &#039;haven of peace&#039;, the city is home to some 10,000 street children and a growing problem of youth gang crime, violence, drugs and sexual exploitation. For any child growing up in Dar, rising poverty and unemployment, changing family patterns and deteriorating environmental and health conditions are daily realities. For street children, it is far worse. Diseased, malnourished, scorned by police and the general public, they are left to their own devices to generate income or find food through legal or illegal means.