In the Phillipines there are about 1.5 million streetchildren and beggars and the number is increasing because of the economic crisis. Most of the children are believed either to have been abandoned by their parents or have run away from broken families. The children beg for alms from motorists and left-over food from customers in eateries. Some of the young boys and girls on the streets are known to have fallen prey to gangs peddling solvents or cough syrups to make them "high" to forget their problems. Some women coddle babies, whom they reportedly "rent" from their real mothers to increase their chances of getting alms, in plying their trade, exposing the infants to the rain, sun and pollution. Some tag along toddlers, naked from the waist up, who help the women knock on the windows of motorists' cars to beg for loose change. The increasing number of beggars using infants was attributed to syndicates out to earn a living using the young children.