'Reform Yourself'
A line of dirty, barefoot boys waited outside a shelter called Sabah. More than 200 have appeared at the door this year, according to the director, Khalaf Allahismail. He tries to work with the government to get the boys off the street, off glue and into classes and part-time jobs.

"The first time I saw children eating from the garbage, it was shocking. It was this new phenomenon in Africa to have so many children surviving like this," said Allahismail, 57, who quit his job as a government social worker and started Sabah in 1986. "Suddenly, farming wasn't profitable enough, and then wars were raging and AIDS came all at once. Now, the issue is complicated by Darfur, and we are seeing more children arrive here traumatized and orphaned."

The street boys are seen as shameful in Sudanese society. When they begin to fight with each other, it gives the police an excuse to arrest them. One recent day, a police officer chased after Ahmed and his friends, calling out, "Don't tarnish the name of Sudan. You have to reform yourself."

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The government has also instituted what it calls "public order campaigns," rounding up street children and putting them in shelters. The boys say they dislike the shelters because often they are beaten or abused for resisting strict discipline.

But at Sabah, street children seem to find a warmer welcome. They are allowed to use a clean toilet and shower in privacy, a rare luxury, and the counselors patiently listen to their problems.

On a recent day, Amad Adel, 13, an emaciated boy with huge brown eyes and no shoes, told a counselor how much he wanted a life away from the streets.

Amad's mother was killed during a robbery three years ago. Soon after, his father remarried. His stepmother decided she would pay to send her four children to school, but not Amad. Frustrated, he ran away to Khartoum, stealing car mirrors to pay for his bus ticket.

On the streets, he linked up with some other boys and started sniffing glue. To support his habit, he said, he stole car parts, trading them with mechanics for glue or cash. The first time he inhaled glue, he felt a sharp pain around his eyebrows. Then he thought he might pass out.

"I got scared that I would die and be punished for all my thieving," he told the counselor, Nwadar Eltaab, 30, a soft-spoken woman. He said he came to Sabah in part because of guilt, and in part because he had heard he could wash in private.

"There is something so good in him," Eltaab said, looking at Amad as he smiled back and fidgeted in his chair. When he spoke, he addressed her as "madam" and used formal Arabic. "These children look scary and society has written them off," she said. "But many are at the age where they need us to step in."

Eltaab invited Amad to live at the shelter but warned him he would not be allowed to use glue. With a sweet smile, Amad admitted that would be difficult.

"When I do glue, it makes my imagination so good. I have no anxiety or pain. I imagine myself in a big comfortable house," he said. "I have money and all the kids around me have plates of food, warm tea and new clothes."

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