Heartbreaking video shows how poor children are treated on the streets

What would you do if you saw a six-year-old alone in a public space?

A heartbreaking video, which has been making the rounds on social media, aims to show how children are treated on the streets according to their appearance.

The video, carried out by United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) has since gone viral, receiving as many as 91,000 likes besides generating over 8 million views on Facebook.



The video begins with six-year-old Anano, played by a child actor, who is made to stand alone in a clean outfit and neat hair at a crowded public place in Tbilisi, Georgia, to evaluate the reactions of passersby.

Within minutes, several people express their concern, asking Anano various questions and even offering help to find her parents.

Dressed as a homeless girl, however, is a different story altogether.



With raggedy clothes and unkempt hair, Anano is virtually invisible on the same street of Tbilisi. No one talks to her, let alone offer her any help.

The same experiment is repeated at a restaurant, where similar reactions are recorded on camera. Anano in a tidy appearance is warmly welcomed by customers who cheerfully talk to her as she sits on their tables. On the other hand, an unkempt Anano is basically shooed off and thrown out of the same restaurant.



The treatment towards her when she was dressed in tattered clothes was so bad that the filming had to be stopped after the child actor broke down. Later, Anano said it was upsetting that just because her face was covered in soot and wearing dirty clothes, people kept telling her to go away.

The heart-wrenching video ends with a powerful message: “Imagine what it’s like for millions of children who are pushed aside every day. Change starts when you choose to care.”



Here is the video: