La Luciérnaga (The Firefly)

La Luciérnaga is one of the most innovative programs in Latin America for street and working kids. Four hundred children and youth produce and sell an excellent magazine of politics and social criticism; they sell more than 50,000 copies a month (!), at US$1 per copy. The sellers (boys and girls 14-21 years old) recieve 75% of this income, while 25% covers the fixed costs, a school associated with the program, and salaries for the editors (this distribution of resources resulted from a vote of the kids. Previously, they had kept 100% of the profits). Perhaps most important, the magazine has transformed the image of street kids in Córdoba. Not only do its articles teach about life on the street, but people now see street kids as hard workers and salesmen, not bums or delinquents. Equally important, La Luciérnaga is self-sustaining, requiring no donations from foundations or the government.

Oscar Arias, a government worker, founded La Luciérnaga in 1995 with his own money. He hoped to make kids into actors and to transform the conditions under which they worked. He saw that selling was the only job that kids could do without earning the opproium of the public, and that a magazine could raise the consciousness of Cordobenses. Equally significant, a magazine is about writing, a skil that might reconnect kids to schools and education. For the first several years, the magazine was very fragile, but when the kids voted to donate 25% of their earnings to the institution, it took off.

Community help is essential to the magazine’s functioning. During the first several years, a religioys community provided a house free of charge, and many people work as volunteers. Only 4 paid staff are necessary to support 400 kids.

In 1998, the magazine was still small, with 98 kids and a couple of adults, when a national television program featured La Luciérnaga. Instantly, 400 kids wanted to work for the magazine, and people from all over Argentina wanted to help. Though deeply flattering, this growth caused a crisis. However, when the magazine was able to buy a printing press in 1999, and when it could hire professional staff, the crisis turned into a huge success.

Volunteers do most of the magazine’s essential work. Several youth, one-time salesmen, now train their peers in economic and life skills. Teachers run a school that provides tutoring and mentoring. Local journalists and intellectuals write the articles pro-bono (most are superb). Printing and layout also depend on volunteers (the man in charge of layout, Sarlanga, worked with Ernesto Sábato and Eduardo Galeano on some of the most important magazines in Argentina. He is now 90 and retired, but still helps lay out every issue.).

The kids learn administration, economics, journalism, writing, and all other aspects of running a small business on the job. La Luciérnaga also runs life-skills workshops, helps drop-outs return to school, and encourages family reunification.

Over the last year, several other programs have begun to copy La Luciérnaga’s model: “The Tin Angel” in Rosario, “Changuitos” in Santiago de Estero, and “Little dances,” of Paraná. Even though they have little time, staff at La Luciérnaga wants to help any NGO that wants to create a magazine.

La Luciérnaga has had some legal problems. Children under 14 may not work in Argentina, so they do not work in the magazine, either. However, they can attend workshops, participate in the school, and learn the basics of the magazine.

In 2006, SAL worked with La Luciérnaga to create the Working with Words Digital Workshop.

Fundación La Luciérnaga
Casilla de Correo 535
Córdoba (CP 5000), Argentina

0351 460 1398

Contacto: Laura Albertini.
Dirección: Av Veléz Sarsfield 1180, subsuelo, barrio Güemes.
Teléfonos: 0351 4681059, 0351 4605663
E-mail: fundacionlaluciernaga@gmail.com

www.laluciernaga.org.ar