I

n urban centers throughout Java, street children cut familiar silhouettes. They weave in and out of gridlocked traffic to hawk cigarettes and souvenirs. Others haunt street corners cajoling harassed-looking animals into frenetic jigs as a pimp lurks nearby. Many more busk in warung, palming chump change from diners who pay them less out of pity than to shoo them away. But perhaps most confronting are the children who brazenly hop on and off vehicles, dangling from the open doors of angkot amid heavy traffic, playing ukuleles and hand-drums to commuters for want of a few thousand rupiah.

About 40 children and their boisterous pet monkey call Manggarai’s Yayasan Annur Muhiyam shelter home. The children, aged from 10 to 19, receive English lessons on the floor of a tiny room where stray cats roam around the single whiteboard. Some of them sleep at the shelter, Others stay with family in stints. A few are orphans who have been rescued from the streets. Most are seasoned street musicians and they round off their class by passing around a battered ukulele, belting out Indonesian pop tunes at full clip.

The ukulele belongs to Citra, 16, a master of Jakarta’s traffic-jams. Every day she dodges motorcars and ojek to play her ukulele on buses and angkot, making about Rp 30,000 (US$3.30) a day. She giggles at suggestions that what she does is dangerous, insisting she is happy. “Many of the people I play for are handicapped, such as people in the train station. I like to entertain them.”

But YAM social worker Aditya says the young street musicians — for whom a poor performance means an empty stomach — are experts at presenting a brave front.

“The streets are very dangerous. With all the cars and some accidents,” he says.

“The majority of children here have problems with family. The children are from broken homes, divorced parents, the majority of them are often orphans. We found them on the street and we took them here.”

Aditya has worked at the shelter for more than a year. He counsels the children, overseeing their education in a tiny room and ensuring they do not work on the streets for more than four hours a day. He says the children are safe at the shelters and can stay as long as they please. “They are very comfortable here.”

Rusyoyo, 18, has mixed busking with studying at Sahabat’s Children’s Activity Center since he was 13. He has lived on the streets sporadically, running away from home after clashes with his parents. Able to make enough money to survive, at first he had little motivation to continue with school.

 “It was tough. The security guards chased after us but for me mostly it was easy to make money from busking.”

His friends eventually encouraged him to leave the streets.

“I feel safe because before I came to Sahabat Anak I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write. Now I have learned skills,” he says.

Some of the children who live at the YAM shelter have been able to put down their instruments and leave the streets. Egi, a baby-faced 14-year-old from Bogor, was a busker, but he dreams of becoming a policeman — he says he prefers shooting games to drums.

But first, he must finish his education.