Lessons learned from the Brazilian experience

Nobody can deny that the problem of street children in Brazil remains a serious one. However, because of the intensive work done in the last ten years, of paying proper attention to the issue, and of constantly striving to get them off the streets, there are less homeless children and a decrease in the number of violations to their human rights.

Today, the situation in Mexico or Guatemala is very similar to Brazil’s in 1990; hence, we can learn much from their successes and failures. Although some of these lessons may seem strange and even difficult to grasp, they are part of the Brazilian success in addressing the problems.

When I visited Mexico last year, people were very concerned by the difficulty of getting children off the street. The rate of success in this process was not very encouraging, in particular with those children who had been in the streets for a long time. This bleak situation was different in Brazil.

For instance, in 2000, a program in Belo Horizonte - a city with 4.5 million people- succeeded in persuading 369 out of 520 street children (i.e., 70%) to go back to their families or to settle in a shelter. This is an enormous success, and so is the fact of finding just 520 street children in such a densely populated city. It can lead us to believe that Brazilian policies regarding children work better than those in other countries.

After examining the project at first hand, I could say there are some relevant aspects to learn from, in particular:

1. Recognizing the “pleasure” of living in the street.
   
   We tend to think only of street children’s suffering and deprivation, and our fundraising literature usually aims to make people aware of them, thus trying and awakening people’s generosity.
   
   However, it must be acknowledged that children and teenagers enjoy street life. They find pleasure in games, freedom, sex and drugs, which are difficult for them to abandon. If we do not understand this pleasure, the proposed solutions may not be as useful or as attractive as we wish. Therefore, many NGOs in Brazil use the so-called “pedagogy of desire”, that is, children are in the street because they want to be, in one way or another. The problem is that this “desire” will not be good for their future. The proposal is, then, to arouse in them and teach them different kinds of desires – the pleasure of learning and knowing, the pleasure of belonging to and being part of a family, the pleasure of theater, dance or any other arts, and the pleasure of sports.
   
   Therefore, the project is not “to put an end to their poverty”, but “to channel their desire in a positive direction.” This statement does not try to deny the destitution in the streets, because we all know that it exists. It simply hopes to show that the problem is more complicated than people think and, because of that, it is important to take into account an element such as “pleasure” in order to face the challenge.
   
   Projeto Axé, in Salvador de Bahía, has a wonderful and very successful program based on this idea.
   
   
2. Street children do not die from starvation
   
   This was a very difficult lesson for me to learn. In my view, suffering was equivalent to hunger and the way I talked about street children was based on this correlation. Nevertheless, reliable studies probe that restaurants, street vendors, stores and alms from passers-by provide for the needs of street children. They do not eat properly and their nutrition is not adequate for their growth and development, but they do not starve. That is why nowadays, in Brazil, there is hardly any NGO giving food to street children.
   
   Street children die from drug abuse; they are killed by bullets; they are the victims of the violent and aggressive social milieu in which they live. So the programs working in the street are oriented and aimed to address problems including conflict, violence, drug abuse and lack of human rights. It is important to recognize that children living in shantytowns ("favelas" in Portuguese) do suffer from hunger, so those programs dealing with prevention and aid in the favelas always take care of pressing needs for food. Thus, it is possible that children that were previously in the streets and are now living with their parents or relatives, may have at least two guaranteed meals a day.
   
   
3. Taking children back home is easier than putting them in a shelter
   
   I was very surprised by this lesson. It has very much to do with "O Estatuto da Criança" (the Brazilian law on children and teenagers), which puts the family at the center of all children projects.
   
   Generally, the program works like this – street educators gain children’s trust through a ludic process (games, football, music). After some time they introduce the project to the children: the building, the drums, the football pitch, whatever. The aim is to encourage the wish to try something else, to provide an experience which is more interesting than the street.
   
   After encouraging these new desires, the educator says – “If you want to participate, you must live with your family…” and then the effort to reintegrate the child to his/her family begins. The child goes back home with the educators and they all work together to discover why did the child run away and what solutions can be found to address the issues in the family’s, and the child’s, lives.
   
   Good programs try to manage a different type of social welfare. The educator or psychologist does not pretend to be “the one who knows”, but rather “the one who brings up questions and concerns and who channels possible solutions.” Of course, it is obvious that not all the families are suitable to care for the child and start a recovery process. Whether it is because of violence, extreme poverty or exposure to drugs, some families cannot provide the environment the child needs. In that case, they try to find some other relative, as an aunt, a grandfather or a brother-in-law, who can receive the child and offer him/her a place to live. If this is not possible, then shelters and purposely-created homes are used, but only as the last resource. Once the child has a place to live, he/she attends the program daily to play and learn. This experience is always aimed to provide a more interesting, entertaining, desirable and attractive option than the one offered by street life. In these cases, educators, social workers and psychologists assist the family through regular visits.
   
   
4. Local networks are all-important
   
   The cities with a higher rate of success in helpig street children – Goiânia, Belo Horizonte, and Salvador – have a strong social network consisting of all the NGOs working with children and teenagers. Thanks to this network, for instance, a street educator has more options to choose a suitable shelter for a child, according to his or her circumstances.
   
   Also, the solidarity within the groups forming the network means this can lobby the government or the police in situations requiring more respect and effort, for the defense of human rights. Another advantage is that the child can chose the program he or she likes best and, of course, the field of action is less limited in resources and in the diversity of environments.
   
   
5. The government plays a major role
   
   The Brazilian government, through the "O Estatuto da Criança", assumes responsibility for the welfare of abandoned and homeless minors, with no family.
   
   The government has signed many agreements and contracts with NGOs, funding them to provide various services, including street education, home compliance and family reintegration. Numerous Brazilian NGOs obtained from the government the budget they applied for. I think this is the reason for their success.
   
   It may seem that this is just a particular case, and that this legislation is unusual, but currently other countries are investigating the adoption of these means of legal support regarding the problematic situation of street children. For instance, El Salvador has just finished a legislative project inspired by the Brazilian law. This may be something to take into account and to work for in future.
   
   Nevertheless, working so closely with the government entails some risks. Some NGOs, for instance, by having strong links with a political party, are guaranteed the possibility of acquiring many resources while that party is in power. But, as it often happens in politics, when there is a change in government, these NGOs are affected in the same measure, suffering heavy losses, which impair their efforts. Be aware! There is much to be learnt from this as well!
   
   
6. Culture as a tool for change.
   
   The most successful programs have taken into account the local culture so as to rescue values, inspire pride in the children’s identity and dream a better future for them. Projeto Axé (from Salvador, a mostly black city) uses African drums, black dances and capoeira (a martial art developed by slaves); the Travessia Project employs drama (very important in Sao Paulo’s culture); the São Bernardo do Campo Project runs a samba club for the children.
   
   In a similar way, other programs use in their work some of their local traditional stories, music, paper crafts and art produced from recycled materials.
   
   A NGO from Rio has a radio program that broadcasts street music, with children as DJs. They all work on the following idea: Mass culture is a major reason for children’s clinging to the street. For instance, US TV and movies show images of an ideal – or impossible to achieve – lifestyle, thus reinforcing the child’s dissatisfaction with his/her life, and, at the same time, leading him/her to seek and try to obtain it in the streets. Therefore, by trying to rescue their own values, immersed in their own identity and with local elements, it is possible to eliminate one of the reasons for the child wishing to remain in the street.