Emaus Republic
Of the four programs in the Movimento de Emaus, the Republic has stayed closest to the program’s original mission: direct services to street and working children. It is located on a huge campus in the poor neighborhood of Crematorio, where it provides services for hundreds of boys and girls.
As it always has, the Republic’s work begins on the streets and in the markets. Traditionally, child vendors worked in the Ver-o-Peso market, but when the market was rebuilt, the mayor resolved to end child labor there. Unfortunately, this well-intentioned plan has sent child workers to the streets in many areas of the city, where it is more difficult to do outreach work. None the less, street educators have learned where street children live and work, so they go to the street to play games and tell children about the services that Emaus offers.
Other children live on the street in addition to working there; most sleep in the São Bras plaza. Outreach techniques are the same with these children, but most of the work happens at night, when the children are all together. In addition, drug abuse is more serious in this population, which makes outreach more difficult.
Educators also do work among girls forced into prostitution. The group is the most difficult to reach, because they earn more money, because there is a network that exploits and defends them, and because their parents often participate in the exploitation.
The Program to Eradicate Child Labor provides scholarships for children who stop working, so educators offer this money as an incentive to leave the street. Unfortunately, the paperwork for these scholarships can be slow, so Emaus has found money from several towns in Europe to fill in the gap. Once they stop working on the street, children can come to the Republic for classes, vocational training, and games.
There are four programs in the Republic, each directed to a certain group of children:
- Arte de Viver (The Art of Living) serves girls who had been prostituted or were at risk of prostitution. They do workshops in arts and crafts, cosmetology, self-esteem, and politics. The program has been very effective at showing girls that they have other options.
- Nova Canção (New Song) teaches music, with classes in guitar, voice, and drums.
- Projeto Reciclagem (Recycle!) makes art out of trash. In addition to teaching about ecology, this art tears down the self-image of the street child as trash.
- Just as on the street, educators work with drawing and sculpting.
There are also vocational training projects. Emaus realized in the 1990s that many vocational classes were worthless in the new global economy, because it was cheaper to import a T-shirt than to make it. Today, the program trains young people for “independent” work, so that upon graduating, they can work as independent contractors.
For instance, in the silk screening class, students learn how to make their own tools. Sewing classes presume that students will have to do everything, from buying cloth to sewing to marketing. Electricians an plumbers learn how to write a fair contract for their services. The program serves some 160 students.
