By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent
Campaigners are asking for the law to be changed to help rescue thousands of Aboriginal children in Australia from extreme neglect.
Alcohol abuse is rife amongst indigenous communities and children are being abandoned while their parents drink.
In some rural areas it is common to see toddlers in nappies wandering around unsupervised, even begging for food or warm clothing.
Many non-indigenous families are so concerned that they have been taking children off the streets and into their homes without formal permission.
They want the law changed to make it easier for white Australians to foster or adopt Aboriginal children.
Eight-year-old Cebby, who was born to an alcoholic mother, has been surrounded by alcohol abuse and violence throughout his young life.
He told Sky News about the few simple things he thinks adults should provide.
"I want them to make me feel safe. Make me feel alright, not scared. Make me feel normal."
The community of Tennant Creek is seeing hundreds of abandoned children Becky Healy, who runs a motel in Tennant Creek - a town in the heart of Australia's outback, is distraught at the huge numbers of Aboriginal children wandering the streets unwashed, unfed and unschooled.
Her motel has inadvertently become a refuge for neglected children.
"It's a crisis. We are now at a point of do or die and we have to do something for these kids.
"If it means taking them into our complex and feeding them and training them when we have nothing to do with the social sector, then so be it."
Children surrounded by substance abuse are even becoming addicted themselves.
Recently three girls, barely in their teens, were caught on CCTV in Tennant Creek breaking into a workshop and sniffing petrol fumes from a tractor engine.
Politicians are now considering putting neglected Aboriginal children up for adoption, until now there has been an unwillingness to act because of fears of a new "stolen generation".
The legacy of the 'stolen generation' has prevented adoptions That was a misguided policy which only ended in the early 1970s where Aboriginal children were taken from their families and placed under foster care with white families or institutions.
The law has since stated that Aboriginal children in need must always be placed within their community, wherever possible.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles, Australia's first indigenous state or territory leader, says it is time to revisit the legislation.
"Whatever we do has to be about making parents take responsibility for their kids," he said.
"(However) we have to give those kids the best opportunity in life and where we deem it necessary we won't be afraid to make those decisions about the child's future."
It is a change Yvonne Mudford and her husband Leigh Swift say can't come soon enough. Their aboriginal neighbours asked them to take their child Mikala for a few hours, then weeks and now permanently.
She still sees her natural parents but is thriving in a home free from alcohol abuse and violence.
Martina is one of thousands of children who need help "It's just a basic right that every child is entitled to. Safety, a good home life, food, clothing and to be looked after and loved … why should these kids miss out on that?"
Critics though, whilst acknowledging something needs to be done, are concerned about removing children.
Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation spokeswomen Vicki Lee Knowles recently told the ABC: "Within an Aboriginal family ... the loss of culture, land and language has a long-term impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of those children who are removed."
Aborigines are the most disadvantaged Australians, with indigenous children twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday as other children.
While accurate data on child abuse and family violence in Aboriginal areas is scarce, the Australian government has said many children grow up in communities where violence has become "a normal and ordinary part of life".
Aborigines are believed to have numbered around one million at the time of British settlement in 1788, but there are now just 470,000 out of a total population of 23 million in Australia.
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