street 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) or take a look at some of the website links featured in this section.

Happy Child Mission started its work in Belo Horizonte, Brasil and has a vision to initiate a similar work for the children of Recife, Northern Brasil and Mozambique, Africa in the future. Here's a little bit of information about the three places:

Belo Horizonte, Brasil

is one of the three major cities of Brazil with the 3rd largest population of over 3,500,000. Belo Horizonte sprawls in an enormous bowl surrounded by hills, a sea of skyscrapers, favelas (slums) and industrial suburbs. The magnificent hills to the south are a spectacular view. Yet, despite it's size and importance, Belo Horizonte is less than a century old - laid out in the 1890s as the first of Brasil's planned cities.

Recife, Northern Brasil

on the North East coast of Brasil, is the largest city in the North East. Founded by the Dutch in the early 1600s, nearby land was developed for sugar cane. But today Recife is best known for it's tourist attraction - the beaches and the nearby historical town of Olinda.

Many of the children we met on the streets were from acutely poor families, without the conditions to support them, but they did not seem to be facing the same drug issues that the children we work with in Belo Horizonte are up against. Thousands of tourists pass through this city every year, providing potential food, money and custom.

Mozambique, Africa

Time and tide have not been kind to Mozambique. A long, horrific civil war has scarred the country, shattered its infrastructure and left a million land mines scattered about the countryside. Much of its coastline has been ravaged by cyclones and the recent floods have devastated a country that was just beginning to get back on its feet, leaving thousands homeless and at risk of disease.

We continue to pray for confirmation from God with regards to our vision to start a project in Beira, on the Eastern Coast and in Recife, Brasil. Happy Child Mission has already sent teams to both locations and has seen the vast differences from Belo Horizonte, in the degree of poverty, family circumstances, dangers for the children and Government assistance.

For this reason we continue to seek counsel and confirmation re: timing and the exact details of how we will start to minister to the street children, war and flood orphans in Recife, Brasil and Beira, Mozambique.

Links

with other sites featuring information on children at risk:

The latest news, reports and policies relating to children at risk (if you find any others, please tell us so that we can keep our website as up to date as possible!):

Jubilee Action - protecting Childrens Rights Worldwide
Streetkid K - Un-moderated forum to promote awareness of the plight of street children and children at risk worldwide

Organisations helping children at risk:

VIVA Network - A Christian organisation that works in partnership with hundreds of different evangelical agencies around the globe. Established to benefit all Christians involved in direct evangelism and care of children at high social risk.

Tearfund is an evangelical Christian development and relief charity working through local partners to bring help and hope to communities in need around the world. In 2000 it is running a 'Children at Risk' programme. Tel 0845 606 4305 (From UK) for more info.

The Toybox Charity -

Samaritans Purse -