Following her stop in Ciudad Bolivar - a hardscrabble barrio in the capital's dusty southern hills - the Swiss tennis champion said love is sorely missing in the lives of many troubled children.
``They can laugh in the streets, they can have fun, but there is so much lack of love,'' said the 19-year-old Hingis, appearing at forum along with first lady Nohra Puyana de Pastrana, the wife of President Andres Pastrana.
``How do you teach people, especially the parents, to give them love?'' Hingis said.
During the two-day visit concluding Friday, she was expected to tour a home for street children.
Hingis has said she was moved by ``The Rose Seller,'' a 1998 movie showing the rough lives of child gang members, thieves and drug addicts in Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city. It starred real-life street children. The film was nominated for an award at the Cannes Film Festival.
U.N. consultant Jose Ruiz estimated there are at least 15,000 children living on the streets in Colombia. Bogota is teeming with the kids, who stay up late into the night and beg for change, wash windows and sell flowers and candy at intersections.
Ruiz blamed the growing problem on escalating poverty, the erosion of family, and Colombia's long-running civil conflict, which has forced some 1.5 million people to flee their homes.
``Street children love life and live it with great intensity, if not duration,'' Ruiz said.
Hingis joins Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo, blues singer Aretha Franklin and actor Omar Sharif in serving as ambassadors for a U.N. campaign aimed at highlighting poverty's devastating impact on children.
Poverty worldwide kills a child every three seconds, the United Nations says.