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Sara de Carvalho had no other choice. Moved by God's calling
on her life, she left her job in British television and came
to Brazil to work with street children.
Follow her and her husband´s struggle to give back to
these boys and girls their right to be happy children.
Why do children go to live on the streets?
The majority of them are on the run from unbearable home and
family situations in the slums of the main cities. Most of
their backgrounds are desperate. Broken homes, alcoholic parents
, eight or so people living in one-room shacks is the stark
reality. It's not unusual for the girls to be pregnant by
the age of 13.
Physical, sexual and emotional abuse from parents or extended
family is a common occurrence - they themselves are living
under the constant pressure of lack of money and bleak futures.
But in some countries due to war or floods there is no family
at all. These orphans don't have an alternative to the streets.
Who are they?
When we refer to street children we are thinking of the 'meninos
na rua' in Brasil, the 'gamin' in Colombia or the 'pelon'
in Mexico. They live on the streets and have no or little
family contact. They don't work and typically use drugs. They
differ from other children who spend most of their day and
night on the streets, who return home to sleep or see there
family on a more regular basis.
Hundreds of thousands of children live on the streets of major
cities throughout Brasil (some estimates reckon it's between
3-8 million children). These children are trapped in a dangerous
world of drug-taking (solvent abuse, cocaine/crack, marijuana)
and prostitution as young as 12 years old.
Survival consists of stealing to feed themselves and sleeping
rough wherever they can - under motorways, in shop doorways
or on the pavements and living under constant threat of 'extermination
squads', drug pushers and disease.
For more information read 'Street Children of Brasil' by Sarah
de Carvalho (published by Hodder & Stoughton in UK at
5.99 pounds and is available in most Christian bookshops.
Outside of the UK, you can also buy it on the Internet at
www.amazon.com)
Learn here about the real lives of some of these children:
Natasha
Sérgio
The
Street Children of Brazil - Natasha's
Story - Sérgio's Story
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