Saturday 16th March 2013 +2.0hrs GMT: Alexandria, Egypt ­ Child Beggars

As we entered Cairo – home to 25 million people – it seemed that most of the population were on the road begging.  This photo is of young children dodging between the traffic in the fast lane of this 3-lane road begging from any car that would stop.  I even spotted one young girl – probably no more than 10 – with her brother covered in a blanket in a wheel chair parked on the edge of the central reservation. Not all that convincing because from the vantage point of the bus I could see the brother peeking out and smiling!

Some 6 hours later we returned along this section of the road and by this time the brother was standing on the wheel chair and appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself.  A sobering thought to think that these two children had been there all day begging for a living.