Eyes Without a Future on the Street

By Admin 29 Sep 2025

Written By Moe Pauk

“I don’t have money to eat, please give as much as your kindness allows,” says 11-year-old Ma Aye Aye Win.

Every day, from 8 a.m. until late afternoon, she roams the busy streets, markets, bus terminals, tea shops, and eateries of Kyauktaw, braving the sun and rain, seeking out donors. She has no regular income to rely on.

“If there are lots of people in the shops, I can get about 20,000 kyats a day. But on quiet days, I only make four or five thousand,” she says, standing in front of a tea shop.

At just 11, Ma Aye Aye Win already carries heavy responsibilities. She has a nine-year-old younger brother and a baby sister, only nine months old. Her father, 40-year-old U Maung Maung Tin, suffers from poor health, while her 38-year-old mother is occupied with caring for the baby. That left Aye Aye Win no choice but to go out onto the streets to support her family’s daily survival.

The family of Ma Aye Aye Win, who is originally from Kanthtaunggyi town in Myebon Township, had to relocate to Kyauktaw at the end of 2023 due to armed clashes and artillery shelling. They now live in a small hut in an informal settlement on the outskirts of the town.

When they first arrived, U Maung Maung Tin took odd jobs at the jetty and bus station, loading and unloading goods to feed his family. But when fighting spread into Kyauktaw itself, all those jobs disappeared.

Later, his health worsened with joint pain and chest problems, forcing him to stop working entirely. With no money for proper treatment, he relies only on traditional medicine.

By October 2024, with no jobs and no income, the family’s food supply ran so short that even their daily meals became uncertain. It was then that Aye Aye Win’s father began taking her by the hand to beg on the streets.

“When the war started, all the jobs disappeared. We had no choice. I had to take my daughter around town to ask for donations so we could survive,” said U Maung Maung Tin.

At first, both father and daughter went out together, but as his illness worsened, Aye Aye Win now goes alone, combing the streets for sympathetic strangers.

Children in Conflict, Futures Stolen

Because of conflict, job scarcity, and soaring commodity prices in Arakan Army–controlled areas, many children like Aye Aye Win have been forced to beg for food and money.

Residents say such scenes are increasingly common in Kyauktaw, Pauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, and Myebon townships. On any given day, hundreds of children and adults can be found on the streets asking for donations—money in towns, and rice or old clothes in rural villages.

“No parent would ever want to see their child begging. But we don’t even have the luxury to dream differently. It’s not that we want this for them—it’s just that we have no other way,” said U Maung Maung Tin.

According to an August 12 report from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), 57% of families in central Arakan State are food insecure. With the economy collapsing under military rule, ordinary people face deepening social hardships.

Meanwhile, the junta has deliberately blocked supply routes for basic goods and humanitarian aid into Arakan. Residents suffer from joblessness, inflation, and worsening poverty.

Children who should be studying in classrooms or playing joyfully instead struggle through bleak, uncertain futures. Many under 18 can also be seen loading and unloading goods at markets, jetties, and shops. A new class of child laborers has emerged.

One of them is 14-year-old Maung Kyin Aung, who works at a general store in Kyauktaw.

“I earn about 120,000 kyats a month. I give it to my mother. She washes clothes and does housework for other families. Together, with her wages and mine, we scrape by,” he says.

He started work in July when soaring prices made survival impossible on his mother’s income alone.

The Need for Real Support

Civil society groups say that rebuilding the futures of children destroyed by war requires not just condemnation of the junta but concrete, practical support from the international community.

“Just blaming the junta won’t change anything. What these children need is real assistance that can actually change their lives,” said a local CSO worker.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child obligates governments to ensure children’s access to education, survival, development, and protection. But in Myanmar—including Arakan—displacement camps, monasteries, and schools have all become airstrike targets, exposing children to daily dangers.

Aye Aye Win herself has survived several junta airstrikes while out begging in Kyauktaw.

“When the bombs fell, I was so scared. I ran back home as fast as I could. At moments like that, I felt very sad, my heart pounding hard,” she said.

According to DMG’s records, after the AA captured all of Kyauktaw Township, the junta carried out no fewer than 16 airstrikes, killing more than 70 civilians and wounding over 130. Of these, at least seven strikes hit Kyauktaw town directly, killing at least 28 people and injuring more than 89.

The insecurity, food shortages, and uncertain future in Arakan are pressing down hardest on children.

“When I grow up, I want to be a schoolteacher. I also want to be a beautician. I don’t want to keep asking for money like this,” Aye Aye Win said, her young eyes bright with both hope and sorrow.

But how long she must remain on the streets, begging to feed her family instead of learning in a classroom, remains painfully unanswered.