Amigos de la Calle (Friends on the Street)
Amigos, a project of the Peruvian Institute for Responsible Parenthood, is an interesting experiment in sex education on the street. It works on three different levels: child, family, and community.
No one knows how many children live on the streets of Lima -- most observers put the number between 1300 and 2000 (there are hundreds of thousands more who work on the street, though they live with their families in the shantytowns). Many of these children are violent and have little desire to change their lives, and Amigos works most closely with these hard core street children.
Educators begins their work on the street with a football. This sport distracts kids from drugs, which allows educators to begin a real conversation, generally about health: “Why are you breathing so hard?” “Did you hurt your knee?”... In this way, football can be the door to talk about sex, health, and drugs. After the game, educators teach about condoms and birth control, then teach kids where they can get health services.
As soon as they can, educators ask the child about his family and ask if they can go an visit. Building a connection with the family is fundamental, because it will allow a gradual process of re-creating the ties between the child and h/er family. Educators help the family and the child to solve the problems that sent the child onto the street in the first place. This work has been very successful -- except when there is extensive drug use in the family.
Finally, Amigos works to create a community network to support children. It teaches church groups, the police, and neighbors about life on the street and what they can do to welcome a child back into the neighborhood. The program also finds local services, and makes sure that the child can access education, health, and food.
If the child cannot return to h/er home, Amigos refers h/er to a shelter run by the state or CEDRO.
Amigos works with about 250 children, always the hardest core of the street population. Educators say that 100% are drug addicts (mostly glue, though some 10% use bazuko or crack). Girls generally abuse pills or marijuana.
Amigos de la calle, INPPARES
Jirón Sanchez Cerro 2110 (con Av. Gregorio Escobedo)
Jesús María, Lima
Perú
Teléfonos : (511)261-5522, (511)261-5533, (511)463-5778
Fax : (511)261-7885
www.inppares.org.pe/amicalle.htm
Contacto: Rolando Polleri Galdos: rolandopolleri@hotmail.com
