Portraits: Bangladesh Street Kids Bond With Their Dogs

NEW DELHI: The streets of Bangladesh are particularly unkind to two groups of living beings -- children and street dogs. In Dhaka, where poverty is widespread, children from impoverished families have no choice but to take to the streets to beg for food or pick up odd jobs. Many of these children are orphans are from families that are just not around. They scavenge for plastics and other throwaways in the day, and seek shelter under Bangladesh’s open skies on the roads at night.

It is perhaps therefore not surprising that these children have formed an unmistakable bond with another group that is vulnerable to being targeted in Dhaka -- street dogs. Photographer Sam Edmonds found the orphaned children living in Dhaka and their canine companions thanks to the organization Obhoyaronno and its tireless work on behalf of Dhaka’s stray dogs. As he followed the street child - street dog pairs, he saw the little children trade whatever coins they found or earned for food for themselves and their pets.

The bond has been possible only because Bangladesh recently stopped the practice of culling -- that is killing the dog in fear of rabies.

Here are some of the moving portraits:

Rabi with Kalu: