Lessons learned from the Colombian experience

If solutions for the street children in Medellín and Bogotá can be found, then there is hope for children everywhere. The number of “gamines” (street children) and the ever-present threat of violence against them are frightening (please, see “Notes on the current situation in Colombia”), but there are outstanding programs, which will serve as a model for all the other countries. The lessons learnt from Colombia include:

1. Violence can be subverted by promoting civil society. When people complains about life in Buenos Aires or Mexico, they talk of “Colombian-style violence”. It is true – Colombia has been, and still is, an extremely violent country. However, this context has generated a number of solutions that may be emulated in other violent countries.
   
   The common point between each solution is civil society. Gangs are powerful not only because of their weapons, but also because they offer “services” to their communities: money, work, protection and a feeling of identity. For their influence to be limited, non-violent agents offering better services must be fostered.
   
   So, Fundación ¡Vivan los Niños!, Taller de Vida, and Benposta train children and youth to became peace builders in their communities. ACJ’s community entertainment managers create youth drama, dance and music groups. DNI seduces gang members with poetry workshops – “to be more successful with girls.” Colegio del Cuerpo has redefined a refugee neighborhood through a dance school for their children. And, in the most holistic attempt, Hernando Roldán builds civil counter-cultures to disrupt the gangs’ power.
   
   Working with children can be a good way of penetrating the most violent neighborhoods, because it appears not to threaten the gangs’ power. In this way, NGOs for street children have a fundamental role in building civil society.
   
   
2. Surviving violence requires respecting everybody. In many cases, gang members are outside the law because they have been consciously excluded by society. When they are treated with respect (as individuals, not as a gang), they are not so embittered and they are willing to seek solutions to the problems threatening their communities.
   
   
3. Democracy in the shelters! Benposta is not a home nor an institution, but it can be the model for all the residential programs. Benposta is a democratic community made up of 150 youth and child citizens (ex-street children), who choose their mayor and cabinet and sit in a bicameral parliament to take decisions on all community issues. The citizens help their new members to get settled and there are hardly any problems of discipline or bad behavior. It sounds like a utopian experiment, but it is real.
   
   In many cases, we are willing to accept mediocre shelters, where the main point is to maintain discipline and train good workers. Benposta proves we can do much better, that a street children community can train community leaders and contribute to the country’s common good.
   
   Instead of “rescuing street children”, Benposta teaches that a residential program has a much more important role: train youth to rescue the society they live in.
   
   
4. Take advantage of “highbrow” and “lowbrow” culture. Colegio del Cuerpo is a ballet group for refugee children. It is so good that it could perform in the Bolshoi Theater or in the Vienna Opera House. Circo para Todos is a professional circus school for street children. The youth in Taller de Vida perform a comedy about their experiences in the war. DN trains gang members in poetry, and ACJ sponsors rap and hip-hop workshops.
   
   It looks like a desperate mixture of high and low, European and mass cultures. However, all the programs work to prevent children from leaving home, to increase excluded youth’s self-esteem, and to build meaning into their lives. The arts are not a “technique” to “rescue” children, but a fundamental part of their lives.
   
   The important point here is that many arts help: refugee children –poor, peasant, black, violated and assaulted – can learn to dance like Martha Graham. Gang members are happy to know about Pablo Neruda, if they think it will help them with girls. Hip-hop, though it seems an American and violent music, can become a pacifist and anti-imperialist art. A play about war can become a comedy.
   
   In every case, children will learn passion and know there is something important in their lives.
   
   
5. Art is better than therapy. Álvaro Restrepo, choreographer and founder of Colegio del Cuerpo, says that talking about the past or “airing” anguish are not as useful as “sublimating sadness” in the joy of dance. The experiences of other artistic programs teach the same lesson. A new life allows children to forget and overcame the scars from their past.