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20/20
Air Date: Friday, January 26, 2007
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on ABC
Episode Title: "N/A"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

A DIANE SAWYER SPECIAL, "WAITING ON THE WORLD TO CHANGE" -- A YEAR IN THE LIVES OF CHILDREN IN ONE OF THE POOREST CITIES IN AMERICA -- AIRS ON ABC NEWS' "20/20," FRIDAY, JANUARY 26

What's it like for kids to live with no electricity, rushing to finish homework before sundown? To have no food to eat before school? To sleep on the floor with roaches, grateful just to have a roof overhead? "20/20" spends time in Camden, New Jersey to report first-hand on the hopes, dreams and terrible hardships children face living in one of the poorest cities in America. But as Diane Sawyer reports, there are children in towns and cities like Camden across the country who struggle daily to succeed despite horrendous odds. Sawyer's examination of poverty as experienced by children in America airs on "20/20," FRIDAY, JANUARY 26 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Ivan, a homeless four-year-old boy who dreams of going to kindergarten (and of being Superman) and having a bed of his own; Billy Joe, a senior in high school determined to be the first in his family to graduate and get a good job, although he sleeps on a floor and his family goes long stretches without heat or electricity; and Moochie, a six-year-old girl who promises she will get straight A's in school and wants to be a judge, as she navigates the chaos of the streets and her father's alcoholism - three young citizens from the other side of the tracks tell the stories of their impoverished lives.

For a year and a half, "20/20" followed the lives of these children. Cameras capture the extraordinary challenges each one faces daily in a city where the drug trade is a $43 million industry and the murder rate is about seven times the national average.

Ivan, Billy Joe and Moochie, along with a handful of other Camden kids, speak candidly to Sawyer about their families, their dreams and their lot in life. Just 10 minutes from Camden, which was named America's most dangerous city in 2004 and 2005, is Moorestown, a town Money Magazine once named America's best place to live. What do the Camden kids think about the kids from Moorestown - and vice versa -- and what do they ask each other when given the opportunity to meet face to face?

The report, along with a follow-up on "Nightline," will look at solutions and what people can and are doing to help children in poverty.

David Sloan is the executive producer.

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