Lifestyle

HO CHI MINH CTY, Vietnam – Standing outside Ho Chi Minh City's Opera House on July 31, Doan Quang, 19, a student at the city's International University, was happy to announce that in 30 minutes he had hugged around nine people. But he also admitted that he was turned down by 15. At first, he was ashamed. “But then I got used to it. I believe the next person will be glad to hug me,” he added. This was the spirit of the Free Hugs campaign, which brought together more than 200 students, residents and visitors on a Sunday morning.

Lynda Lopez, 17, a World Youth News reporter and high school senior from Chicago, won a scholarship from the American Field Service exchange program to spend the summer in Thailand. But she didn't get to spend all of her time there lounging on Thailand's famous beaches. Schools in the United States may break for the summer but in Thailand the school year runs from May through March.

While enrolled at Suan Dusit Rajabhat University in Hua Hin, a resort town on Thailand's central coast, Lopez studied German, English for Communications, and Business Management. She also took a few trips to northern Thailand, further exploring and absorbing the Thai culture. In her spare moments, she began chronicling the lives of young people there -- having fun, studying, working, eating, and zipping around the streets -- through photographs, interviews, and shared experiences.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- On the streets of Santo Domingo, poverty is glaringly on display. Beggars and peddlers, from the age of four to the age of 70, approach car windows at stoplights, holding out their hands or offering peanut brittle for sale. Two young boys bicker over five pesos, approaching the car of a family to ask for more money. The father, who's driving, asks them what the problem is.

ACCRA, Ghana – Several thousand children live and work on the streets here, and their numbers are growing. Increasing urbanization in the capital city and increasing poverty in the surrounding countryside are making more children vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and abuse, including what a higher risk of exposure to HIV.

August 9, 2009

Brasilia, BRAZIL -- Child labor in Brasilia is becoming more common day by day. Children work mostly on the streets selling candies, flowers, stickers and other small items. Some perform services, such as watching over cars or washing them in public parking lots. Others shine shoes.

Brasília has 2 million inhabitants and is the city with highest per capita income in the country, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Research by the Federal Policy Department shows that about 7,512 children are now working on the streets.

Cluj Napoca, ROMANIA -- Social networking sites have become one of the most popular means of communication among young people in Romania. A group of 20 teenagers was interviewed to investigate how they use sites like hi5, MySpace and Facebook. While most of them said they enjoyed meeting people on these sites, they were also cautious about privacy issues and the amount of information they shared with people online. 

Uttar Pradesh, INDIA -- The rapid growth of social networking sites in the last five years has made these sites a necessary part of many people's lives. Teenagers are the biggest users of these sites throughout the world. Google's Orkut.com, which was launched in January 2004 and named after its creator Orkut Büyükkökten, is quite famous and more widely used by youngsters in India than other sites like Facebook and MySpace. It is hard to find any teenager studying in a high school who doesn't have his or her profile on Orkut. 

BIRMINGHAM, UK – Teenagers in Birmingham, England, are looking at their science lessons and their own pets in a new light after new research carried out by Imperial College London has found serious inherited health problems in pedigree dogs after decades of inbreeding.

The study, published in May in the scientific journal Genetics, found that breeding dogs for physical traits, such as the Dalmatian’s black spots or the bulldog’s massive head, favors appearance over health. The result could be any of a long list of genetic conditions, including arthritis, epilepsy and thyroid abnormalities.

Manila, PHILIPPINES -- Sitting on a tattered carton, Angelika, 11, waits patiently. As soon as the commuter train unloads its passengers, Angelika jumps into the middle with hands outstretched and her fingers curled in the universal gesture of begging. Her mournful eyes are enough to merit 25 Philippines pesos, about $0.50 US, which she happily jingles with her brother when the commuters have gone.