Lessons learned from the Guatemalan experience

1. Civil conflict can lead to killing street children. After a civil war, security forces, already used to killing and convinced of the efficacy of the ideology of “social cleansing," turned to street children. Street children are considered agents of unrest because they are “dirty” and “dangerous”. They are called “cancer” or “plague”, terms that had already been used in the fight against the guerrillas.
   
   It is easy for the security forces, whose function is to enforce law and order, to decide that cleaning public spaces demands the exclusion of street children. This has been the accepted excuse to kill them.
   
   Casa Alianza has documented the killing of over 300 Guatemalan children, most of them evidently carried out by the country’s security forces.
   
   
   
2. Volunteers as an option to address lack of funding. Camino Seguro and EDELAC depend on volunteer participation to carry out their brave efforts. Thus, it is possible to see what else can be done with a low budget.
   
   International volunteers, who later return to their own country, are a good source of income. Besides, knowing other cultures gives children a broader perspective.
   
   However, volunteering does not often go further than basic welfare. It can destroy some personal and individual prejudices, but does not possess methods to consolidate long-term relationships.