31 December 2010 – UN Police (UNPOL) advisers visited a camp for street children in the Upper Nile State capital of Malakal on the last day of the year and donated T-shirts and first aid supplies to the camp's staff.

Present at the event was UNPOL Protection Officer Anna Karlsson and the Upper Nile State government's child protection coordinator, James Doyiech Ter.

The camp was inaugurated last August by the state government's Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Religious Affairs and the UNICEF office in Malakal.

Its juvenile residents were exposed to drugs and sexual abuse before the camp was opened, according to Mr. Ter. Located in the city center of Malakal, the camp is the first of its kind in the city and can accommodate up to 100 street children.

"The UNPOL (officers) have contributed money from their own pockets to buy 130 t-shirts for the street children in Malakal," said Ms. Karlsson, who reiterated her colleagues' commitment to continue giving support to the state's child welfare unit.

One of the T-shirt recipients was Jedo Abdalla Bashir, who moved into the camp within weeks of its opening. "I came by boat from Juba with the intention to go to Khartoum to stay with my uncle because my father died," said the 12-year-old boy, who lost sight of his mother at a bus stop in Malakal. "I cannot communicate with her because I do not have her telephone number, and she does not know where I am."

Cities in Southern Sudan have seen a steady rise in the number of street children in recent times, according to an interview Regina Ossa Lullo of the Government of Southern Sudan's Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Religious Affairs gave to Sudan Radio Service last June.