true stories

Jose Geraldo
(Transcript from an interview conducted by Mark Hester, October 1998)

My name is Jose Geraldo, I am 14 years old and I live on the Happy Child farm in Belo Horizonte - the third largest city in Brazil.

I have just started my first job in a regular pizza restaurant making take away pizzas. For me this is a great achievement because I come from a desperately poor family and actually spent 5 years living on the streets.

In addition to my job I really enjoy living on the farm. Because of my background I can thank God for the fresh air, delicious food and the overwhelming atmosphere of love here. None of these were present where I grew up.

On the streets I lived by the law of the concrete jungle - stealing, mugging and fighting. There were days when the hunger was so intense it felt as if every muscle in my body was aching. I am ashamed to say that to dull the pain I used to take drugs all the time. I mainly sniffed paint thinner. After a while I got used to the burning sensation on the back of my throat. But the awful smell used to cling to my clothes and stayed on my breath so that even when I managed to scrounge something to eat I couldn't taste it properly.

Humiliating

When I was young my Dad used to drink heavily. He would come home drunk and get angry for no reason and then beat me and my older brothers. It was very frightening. He used to send me and my brothers to beg on the streets of Belo Horizonte because he didn't seem to be able to earn enough money for our family. It was very humiliating for us to hold out our hands pleadingly at the windows of cars stuck in traffic. But what could we do - we were afraid to go home empty handed. Unfortunately, even when we did come home with money it didn't last very long. Our Dad didn't seem to be able to resist going to one of the bars near our home to drink with the money we had scraped together.

One day, when I was seven years old, my brothers took me to the streets to beg with them. This time, however, we didn't go home.

I lived on the streets until I was eleven years old and it is amazing that I survived. Most children living on the streets in Brazil aren't that lucky. I know of many who were killed because they walked in front of cars while they were high on drugs. Sometimes children from rival gangs would put petrol on a child while he was sleeping and set light to him.

Rags

The concrete of the streets was very hard and cold and sometimes in the morning it felt as if my body was covered in bruises from head to toe.

Occasionally, we found pieces of cardboard and rags to sleep on. However, there were some great nights when kind people would come and give us new blankets and delicious warm soup. When we weren't begging and stealing we would sometimes ride to the top of a hill illegally by holding onto the back of buses. Then we would race down the hill on our skateboards trying to avoid the police because if they caught us they might beat us.

Although I was desperately poor and life on the streets was dangerous I loved what I thought was freedom and enjoyed the thrill of stealing and having to run away so that I wouldn't get caught. Unfortunately, I used a lot of drugs so I was probably a little crazy and didn't really care about my life too much. It often felt as if nobody wanted street kids around and I convinced myself that no one loved me.

However, there were some Christians from a group called Happy Child who used to walk all round the city until they found us. They told us about a day care centre for street children where we could have a warm shower, food and play games or watch TV.

I went along one day but I said that I didn't like it because it was too noisy. Actually, I think I was so hurt that I found it impossible to trust anyone. When the team from Happy Child came and woke us up on the streets I used to pull my old worn blanket tightly around me and tell them to go away. Even though it was filthy and smelt of urine, I had more confidence in that blanket than in any of the people who had come to help me.

However, one day Anderson (one of the people from Happy Child) asked us if we wanted to go and play football on a grass pitch. This was too good to miss because I was used to playing football with a tin can and never on grass. I got up immediately and went. Anderson taught me to play football there and discovered that I was really good at it. I could run circles round all the other boys which made me feel good. I think it was there that I started to let my barriers down and began to believe someone really cared about me.

Anderson would always talk to us about Jesus. He used to try to explain to us that we could ask God to help us to leave the streets and to have a better life. He said that God knows each one of us individually and loves us regardless of what we have done.

Battle

Anderson kept telling me to go to the day care centre but I never wanted to and sometimes I would even swear and shout at him if I had been taking drugs and wasn't thinking straight. There was a battle going on inside of me because I was still afraid to completely trust someone. It was as if all the powers of good and evil were at war right over my head.

However, one day I woke up and decided I was tired of living on the streets, I had had enough of always feeling filthy and sleeping on dirty streets that smelt of urine. I was tired of stealing from innocent people and looking in rubbish bins for scraps of food. Anderson was still visiting our gang so on that day I went with him to the day care centre.

I discovered that it wasn't that bad at all. In fact the people there were really nice and taught me how to read and write because I had never been to school - I was 11 years old!

Like Anderson they talked to me about Jesus. I learnt that God loves each one of us so much that He sent Jesus to die in our place. I didn't really understand this at first. But, as I began to let the walls I had built around myself come down it started to make sense. Eventually, through the love that people from Happy Child showed me, I was able to believe that my life really mattered. All this despite five terrible years on the cold, hard streets of Belo Horizonte!

I kept going to the day care centre most days and soon I was allowed to go to Happy Child's night-shelter. This is a place for children who have been going to the day centre for a while. It is an enormous house with several dormitories and lots of bunk beds where the children sleep. On my first night there I was so relieved to swap my mouldy piece of cardboard for a bed and that filthy old rag for a proper mattress with clean sheets and a fresh blanket.

Breakfast

I stayed at the night-shelter for three months before I came to the farm. Every morning we would be given a good breakfast and taken to the day care centre for the day. It was a difficult time of adjustment for me and I am sure I was more than a handful for the workers. I find it hard to believe now but sometimes I even thought about going back to those streets. Everyone has their bad days.

Nevertheless, I stuck at it and was really excited one day when I was told I could go to the farm. We all knew the Happy Child farm was a great place with horses and cows and a swimming pool and lots more.

It has now been two and a half years since I moved to the farm and people say I am a different person. All the anger that used to burn inside me like an uncontrollable fire has gone. I no longer fight with people and I am excited about the future.

When I think about the five years that I spent on the streets I realise that all I learnt there was to steal, smoke drugs and run away from the police. God is helping me to make up for those lost years now.

In the future I would like to be a football player and play in the World Cup for Brazil! But whether this happens or not I am going to carry on studying and also I want to be like Anderson and help the hundreds of children who are still suffering on the streets.

When I got off the bus today after work five street children got off at the same time. They were riding on the bus illegally trying to get to Vitoria which is six hours away and has nice beaches. I recognised them from the days when we shared a piece of pavement together.

Streets

I felt sad that they hadn't managed to find a better way of life yet. I know that they need someone like Anderson who will never give up on them because one day each one of them will get tired being on the streets too.

If I could say one thing to people I would say that whatever anyone has done to you, you must learn to forgive them. I had to learn to forgive my Dad which was very hard because of what he used to do to me and my brothers. Now that I have forgiven him there is no rage inside of me and one day I hope to be able to go home again and help to support my family through my job.

Jose Geraldo, born 28.12.83

At the time of writing Jose Geraldo is still studying, working at the Pizza restaurant and living on the farm. His story, though a remarkable success in terms of survival, highlights the need for a house for teenagers as an extra stage to the Happy Child project.

When children such as Jose Geraldo reach the age of 14 and begin to work they start to need space to develop their own interdependence. A strategic place for them to stretch their newly developing characters within the loving atmosphere of a home.

Happy Child already has a team ready to run this house and it is hoped that soon a suitable property can be bought. We appreciate your prayers towards this end.