Bosconia

Bosconia was founded by Father Javier de Nicoló in the 1960s and since then has become one of the most important models for services for street children. Today, Bosconia serves several thousand children in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, and Buenaventura. I visited Bosconia-Cali, and this essay will concentrate on that program, but the methodology is similar at all Bosconia sites.

Because it was the model for many Salesian and secular programs, Bosconia’s methods are common knowledge: “operation friendship” on the street, a drop in center, adaptation to life in a “Children’s City”, and an intense program of education and vocational training.

In Cali, few kids want to leave the street. The climate is great and you can always sleep outside; there are many open-air restaurants where you can beg food; people give change to beggars. Large groups of students or of religious people are always in the streets, giving food to street kids. The street provides companionship, food, drugs, sex, liberty... Why leave it?

Staff on the street and at the drop in center encourage kids to get off the street. They do so through personal relationships, teaching kids how to dream, and promises of a better life. Then, at the drop-in center, kids are broken down into three groups: those who can return directly to their parents, those who will enter the institution, and those who will never leave the street. Bosconia offers different services to each group.

In Colombia, the civil war has condemned many campesino kids to the streets -- fear of the guerrillas or the autodefensas (right-wing guerrillas) sends many campesinos to the cities, where their children end up on the street, selling sweets or begging. For these campesino kids, Bosconia runs a residential farm. Urban kids go to a house in the city.

Discipline at Bosconia is frighteningly good. It uses astute awareness of child psychology and powerful manipulation of desire.

As an example: in the drop in center, there is a swimming pool. The first day that a boy (Bosconia serves only boys) comes to the center, even if he is high and filthy, he can play in the pool. When he leaves in the evening, staff tell him, “Cool, glad you enjoyed it. But the next time you come, you can’t be high.” The next day, the kid always shows up high, and staff keep him outside. He gets angry and throws stones at the building, then leaves. However, in three days, every kid comes back -- clean of drugs.

Similarly, when kids come to the shelter, they don’t want to clean their rooms. In the middle of a football game, an educator will say, “I’m looking for five volunteers to clean the room,” and two or three leave the game to help him. Several hours later, in front of everyone, the educator invites the volunteers to join him for an ice cream, and everyone else is jealous. The next day, the educator asks again for volunteers; everyone runs to clean the room, and then they ask for an ice cream. “But you volunteered,” says the educator. “And you expect a reward?” This game continues for several weeks; sometimes there is ice cream or soda, sometimes not. And within a month, the kids are cleaning their room on their own.

Like in all Salesian programs, vocational education is very strong at Bosconia. The workshops are so good that the new director proposed to turn them into a business, but the boys became resentful. “We’ve worked our whole lives, and we want to be kids for a little bit,” they told the director, and now the workshops are for education again.

Outreach workers also do research. Every three months, they take a census of kids on the street, and they have discovered a frightening increase of street kids in the last several years. In December of 2001, there were 1240 boys and 78 girls on the streets of Cali, a 30% increase over the same period in 1999. Bosconia also documents the success of its graduates, and has proved that 65-70% are in good shape -- working, living with families, wives, children, etc.

Bosconia gets 40% of its budget from the ICBF (Youth Services Department), some money from international foundations, some from sales from the workshops, and a good bit from poor people in the neighborhood. “People who have the least give the most,” says the director.

Fundación Servicio Juvenil -- Bosconia
Carlos Adolfo Posso, Director, Cali

Calle 39 #3-40
Cali, Valle
Colombia

57 2 448 7741

bosconia@emcali.net.co o funserjuv@emcali.net.co

En Bogotá

Cra 30 #78-12
Bogotá, Colombia

57 1 630 2187