Cherie launches street life book

Cherie Booth QC has helped launch a book aimed at rescuing girls from around the world who are trapped in prostitution and street life.

The Prime Minister's wife addressed the launch of Urban Girls — Empowerment in Especially Difficult Circumstances.

The book aims to teach underprivileged and exploited city-dwelling girls about their rights.

Ms Booth said: "What this book aims to do is to focus on some of the world's most vulnerable children so they can be encouraged to break out of their daily struggle and achieve a life of dignity.

"These girls fall through the net time and time again. We need to target them properly with a sophisticated approach."

She continued: "This is about empowerment."

Quoting the words of a street girl, Ms Booth said: "I have been a street girl since my father made a woman of me, I carry on in the world but I am really dead."

The book, from the Consortium for Street Children, is aimed at welfare and development agencies, was launched at a Foreign Office reception in London to coincide with International Women's Day.

Director of the CSC Sadia Mahmud Marshall said: "The book shows how development programmes deal with girls stuck in prostitution and begging and how they are able to take them out of it. It also brings to light how the girls get into the problems in the first place."

The CSC is made of 35 UK based organisations, including Save the Children Fund and World Vision, and is dedicated to the welfare of street children.