YOUNGSTERS WHO LIVE ON BRAZIL'S MEAN STREETS FACE DANGEROUS CONDITIONS AND FLIRT WITH DEATH.

Despite one of the world's most comprehensive children's rights statutes, many Brazilian children live on the streets, unaware of the rights they are guaranteed.

These children face harsh and dangerous conditions.

Some, dissatisfied with the petty jobs that bring in only a few reals , become runners for the drug lords who rule their neighborhoods. Others face abuse from parents and run away, trading one nightmare for another. Still others wind up dead, shot by hired police death squads who consider the children to be petty thieves and nuisances that disrupt the peace and scare off tourists.

Conditions such as these in Brazil and around the world will be the focus of UNICEF-sponsored special session early next year in New York. The session, originally scheduled for Sept. 19-21, was cancelled after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

And next month, the Convention on the Rights of the Children, an international pact on the treatment of children adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and supported by more than 100 countries, marks its 12th anniversary.

The United States and Somalia are the only two nations that have not signed the agreement.

While Brazil was one of the original signers, nonetheless, the people of Brazil -- especially its children -- continue to endure a life of hardship.

Ricardo Engelesta, 13, washes windshields on the streets between the main bus station and a mall in Salvador. On afternoons, he might wash 10 or 12 before earning a few reals (1 U.S dollar equals 2,755 reals ). But he says he has no alternative -- after spending the morning in school, he has to earn what he can in the afternoon in order to eat dinner.

Ricardo knows that he shouldn't be working on the streets.

"We really need to get out of here," he said, "because sometimes guys that are selling drugs come here and they beat us up and they try to force us to take drugs and to deal drugs. And it's not a good place to be. We shouldn't be living like this."

Vandemito da Silva Nascimento, 13, was homeless before he was able to get out of his desperate situation with the help of an aunt. She brought him to DiDa, a youth program that teaches music but also provides tutoring, meals and housing for students.

"I used to live on the streets. I used to not sleep. I would stay awake until the morning. So that my head wasn't going to be empty, I would stay up late so that I would keep my mind busy. I didn't like to sleep on the floor. I would prefer to be standing," he said. "Sometimes I didn't have anything to eat. We used to sell drugs in the projects -- all kinds, all sorts of drugs."

Drugs drew Valdimir Matos, 22, to the streets by the time he was 14.

"My sisters were already out living in the streets, and so I went out there, too. But both of them died. They were on crack. I lost both of them," said Matos, who now works for Ibeji, a program for youth offenders.

"My parents tried to come after me for awhile, and then it was too hard to find me and figure out what was going on, so they sort of gave up. Then my mother died. My father is 72 years old."

Some kids take to the streets not because their parents desert them, but their neighborhoods do. Renovation projects in Salvador have displaced some poor families from their homes near the central city. The city relocated these people to areas on the outskirts of the city, but some kids choose to stay behind, living on the streets of their old neighborhoods where they can still make money.

And for many who have homes in poor neighborhoods, life is just as violent as it is for street kids.

"Anyone who is on the street after midnight gets shot," said Josiane, 14, who lives in Favela Calabar.

More than a third of Salvador's 2.2 million people live in favelas , defined as a grouping of 50 or more dwellings on squatted land.

Molly Cerqueira, an Indianapolis native who has lived in Salvador for 15 years, says there's a difference from the inner cities of North America. Favelas are constantly growing, not always in area but in population and housing. But they endure problems such as poverty, crime, drug trafficking and a lack of services such as utilities, roadways and schools.

Although many Brazilians live in deplorable conditions, children use education and programs to help them improve their lives.

"There's still a lot of kids in the streets, doing drugs and being prostitutes,'' said Ibeji worker Matos. "But I feel that I can help make a difference for these kids.''

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Clay Smith, 14; Emma Hulse, 14; and Laurann Brown, 16.

REPORTER: Maria Srour, 13.