What did you get up to when you were a child at Christmas?

I look back on all the ace Christmases I’ve had – every one spent with family, always eating way way more than should be eaten, carol services, presents, seeing old friends, teasing the cat, 1kg chocolate bars, etc...

It was a shock to come back here, to see children spending their days and evenings working on the streets – in the markets, polishing shoes – but not just that, that many of these children are from countryside settlements and have been sent to the city to work since school finished in November for summer holidays until returning in February/March, without going back once in between. And this is normal practice for them each year – not having Christmas with their families.

In reference to the problem of children attracted to a street-living lifestyle – to work and/or live there, Oruro acts as what is called a ‘feeder city’. As mentioned in my previous blog, Oruro has a higher altitude and is colder than other Bolivian cities. The nights here get very cold making the streets an unattractive place to spend the night. Also Oruro is one of the poorest cities in Bolivia, meaning less is earned for polishing shoes and cleaning car windscreens than is in other cities. These two factors – Oruro being too cold to sleep on its’ streets at night and the desire to earn more money – push children to other cities such as Cochabamba, La Paz and Santa Cruz with the prospect to earn more and to be in a warmer, more survivable climate. By my experience so far there are not many children here working on the streets over the age of 14/15. Most of them are in the 8-13 bracket.

It has been identified when children feel they are mature enough they leave Oruro. This may involve going to live on the streets or to live with a relative or with/without a friend to a relative of theirs – an uncle, grandparent. In some cases going to a relative somewhere else could be a good move. The child could be running away from abusive parents and the relative may be willing to take care of the child with positive intentions. However this is often sadly not the case. A relative often takes a child into his or her home as a source of income, not out of love and compassion. The child’s welfare is not given a lot of attention and the child works for their new guardian. Again, this creates a situation where a child may be tempted to earn what they earn and stay on the streets keeping it to himself rather than giving it to someone else, someone else who may be an abuser and/or addict – and what is brought home is never enough for an addict.

Well this is the situation faced by the team here in Oruro. A lot of amazing work is carried out here by them to counter these problems and bring real hope and it’s been great to be a part of what they’re doing. I’m going to keep my blogs more snappy this time round so I’ll finish here and tell you what they do in facing up to these challenges in the next one.