Preventing that ‘street lifestyle’ – Work with street children

As part of the work of Early Encounter Oruro the team also work with children who have turned to a ‘street lifestyle’ or have been forced to due to various circumstances. Bolivia holds a horrific statistic that states in roughly 8 families out of every 10 some form of child abuse takes place. This abuse could be physical, sexual or mental. Such problems drive many children to the brink and over and result in many running away from home and fending for themselves in whatever way they can. In Oruro there are many children who live with friends/siblings and spend their days doing whatever they can to help them survive – shoe shining, selling bags, carting heavy goods around the markets – children working in these roles are many of which we visit. There are also children who still live at home with their families, go to school and still do a 7 hour shift of work each day. Some children don’t even go to school and spend all their days working to make a living for their family. A lot of children in Oruro are sent from the countryside to work in the city. Some go to school but not many. These children often find their accommodation in big rooms throughout the city that they can pay about 4 Bolivianos (40p) to sleep in at night. These rooms often accommodate about 20-30 people who just sleep on the floor. In each situation a child is in danger. Their education suffers with not going to school at all, not having time to do their homework and in many cases not receiving encouragement and help from family. With so much time spent on the streets earning money and taking that back to your family (taking into account the 8/10 statistic of child abuse taking place in Bolivia), it becomes more and more appealing to keep the money for yourself and inevitably, as many children do, this leads to them one day taking the decision to leave their homes and become independent. At such an early age this is dangerous for a child’s development and personal safety.

Working with street children is a difficult task. Many would think if you walk up to a street child and simply offer them a home, bed, 3 meals a day, other friends to play with, an education, opportunities to play football, all in a warm, friendly environment with no strings attached it would be an absolute no-brainer. The fact that this job is so difficult points to the horrific childhood and upbringing many of these children have had. Abuse from parents, older siblings and other adults leads to a huge lack of trust. A severe lack in education leads to a huge lack in belief of a child’s own intellectual ability. The thought of being in a classroom is a nightmare. The independence of life on the streets with no role models, rules and instruction leads to a child having no desire to be put in an environment where there’s rules, rotas and a daily timetable to keep to. Of course many homes for children coming off the streets do their absolute best to ease children carefully into such a lifestyle but with such backgrounds the children have had it is a tentative process where just one incident or small dislike to a situation can lead to a child immediately running back to their life on the streets. This is why preventative projects (as written about in my previous blog) are so incredibly important. These barriers are massive and difficult to overcome.

Early Encounter Oruro has a strategy set out to help such children.

The first stage involves work on the street where the children are at. At the moment we visit 8 zones in Oruro. These zones involve markets, various streets selling anything and everything, busy roads where children are waiting for work to come by (mainly trucks with people heading to sites to carry out construction work), the plaza where people with high-profile jobs like to keep their shoes clean and shiny plus other areas. We visit these children weekly. We often head out with juice, biscuits and some form of an activity – a card game, puzzle, noughts and crosses. Anything really. Monthly we plan a group activity. This may involve playing football or other games. Such activities build friendships and trust.

The second stage involves inviting children to the drop-in centre that runs every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. This is a project in a Church in the centre of the city. At the project are games and snacks are served. Psychologists attend and the children can receive expert help and advice in anything they need. Spiritual support and encouragement and help with schooling are provided too. All this help provided is hugely influential in a child’s positive development. All of this is done in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.

And the third stage, as friendships and trust are built to a good level, involves taking important life decisions that need to be taken. We help children find the living environment that is best for them and their development – whether that is reintegration back into a child’s family or to an extended family, a children’s home or to live independently with a good future ahead.

The barriers are difficult to overcome but there are always success stories, many of which are due to the hard work put in by the staff here at Early Encounter Oruro and to encourage you further, in other Early Encounter networks across South America supported by the help of those such as the Toybox Charity and Viva.

Three years ago, Early Encounter Oruro’s street educator, Wilma, started visiting a boy named Marcos shining shoes in the plaza. The whereabouts of his family are unknown and he spent each night sleeping in one of the big rooms that the city provides. Life was tough as Marcos had to provide for himself and school was way down on his list of priorities. With visits from Wilma their friendship and trust between them grew. With encouragement from Wilma, Marcos started attending school in the evenings. He continued his work in the day. As time went by he started attending the drop-in centre each afternoon receiving help in many areas of his life. When I arrived in January we always saw him on our visits to the children shining shoes in the plaza on Tuesday and Friday mornings. A few weeks ago a refuge called Casa Vida started up in the centre of Oruro, just across from the plaza. Marcos moved in a couple of weeks ago. He can now spend his days concentrating on his education and is now facing a good upbringing until he can become fully independent. This great story of what has happened in Marcos’ life is a great testament to the careful, friendly and sensitive work carried out by Wilma and many others part of the Early Encounter network. He’s now 15 and has seemed very settled and happy with himself the couple of times I have visited him and others at the refuge since it started up. Always, as with teens, there are difficulties. Yesterday he and a friend (also living at Casa Vida) were in a fight at school. But instead of dealing with such problems alone (or just ignoring them altogether and continuing down a bad road) he now has great support from a qualified team of educators at Casa Vida.

I could go on with more stories over the last year and a half but I realise this has gone on a bit so I’ll round it off here! Thanks for reading. Am looking forward to meeting Mum, Dad and Becky at the airport in Cochabamba tomorrow night. It’ll be ace to have them over and to visit the three Early Encounter networks that Toybox and Viva support in the Andean region – Cochabamba, Oruro and Lima. Mum and Dad have already been to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala (see their blog - http://alastair-debbie-welford.blogspot.com/) Also Becky will be doing a blog while she’s over which she’s already started - http://bwsouthamerica.blogspot.com/

Hope all’s well in Blighty. Of course was gutted to miss out on all the wedding hype and event itself. I heard they’re selling William and Kate pillows over there??! Anyway, courtesy of a link from Dad’s facebook page, I hear the ceremony went something like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kav0FEhtLug

Enjoy!