Lessons learned from the Mexican experience

Nowadays, Mexico City is living through one of the worst situations in the world where street children are concerned. Informal censuses indicate that there thousands and thousands of homeless children, and another million working, begging, prostituting themselves or simply in the street, out of school. The problem has not reached this level in other cities in the country, but it is increasing.

However, successful programs have important lessons to teach to other NGOs and to other countries. Among the most important of them is: Handling drug use and sexual practices is not simply a question of preaching abstention. Radical solutions do not work, particularly with youth and older children. Even if children wanted to give up drugs or hazardous sex, or leave the streets, most of them lack will and reject help, when they are asked for perfection.

1. El Caracol has escaped this danger with an educational proposal, without passing judgment or sentence. Instead of requiring abstention or temperance, their philosophy of “harm reduction” promotes small steps in youth’s lives. Replacing the condemn of all types of drug by a recognition process can lead to accept, for instance, that glue is worse than marihuana and that heroine is even worse.
   
   This process tries to limit the damage produced by drugs, rather than eliminating an addition that the child does not want or cannot abandon.
   
   For instance, during a conversation with a heroine addict, an educator suggests clean syringes to avoid HIV or hepatitis infection. With an addict to glue, they talk about other techniques or alternatives to face life in the streets.
   
   Those NGOs practicing “harm reduction” and a non-judgmental philosophy, have achieved an increase in children’s trust and a greater proportion of youth leaving the streets.
   
   
2. An organic problem must have an organic solution. There are many reasons for child and youth homelessness in Mexico, including poverty, abuse, family breakdown, mass media, and schools. Any program aspiring to put an end to homelessness must take into account all of these reasons and be able to integrate all the social agents involved in them.
   
   Those programs that manage to prevent children from putting down roots in the streets mobilize the social network as a whole: churches, schools, small businesses, hawkers and people in the street. Ednica has achieved an impressive success with this strategy and it is worthy to imitate.
   
   
3. Tourism can contribute to street life. In some tourist destinations, such as Oaxaca and San Cristobal, families have learnt that a child can sell more souvenirs and obtain more alms while begging than an adult. Street children become, in fact, heads of the family, simply because tourists feel more sorry for them.
   
   Beyond the typical problems of life in the street – bad health, lack of education, violence, etc. -, this situation fosters a false sense of pity, disrupting a child’s level of self-esteem and portraying people with a victim self-image, which makes it more difficult for them to leave the street.
   
   So far, Shine-a-light does not know any NGO fighting this problem successfully.