In addition to SAL's constant work to empower local organizations to help each other, Shine-a-light helps distribute intellectual and financial resources to needy organizations across the region. We collaborate with the most effective local organizations to document their work as DVD or CD-ROM based courses, then distribute this information so that other NGOs can take advantage of this local knowledge.

The links below offer as description of SAL's past and ongoing projects, as well as a space to download all of the texts produced during the project. To order the DVD or CD-based courses, please write us.

Current Projects:

• The Project against Gang Violence documents the best practices of organizations providing producting, non-violent options for youth, based on research in Rio de Janeiro and Medellín, Colombia.
• The Hip-Hop Education Project works with Pé no Chão in Recife, Brasil to show how rap, break dance, and grafitti can bring street children into an educational process.
• Africa on the Street, a collaboration with several Brazilian NGOs, documents the power of African dance to reach kids living on the streets and in the favelas.
• Working with Words, a collaboration with La Luciérnaga, shows how NGOs can use journalism as a way to teach kids literacy -- and to economically support their families.
• StreetKidVid will be a CD-ROM based course showing how to use children's video as an educational resource.

Sucessfully completed projects:

• The Indigenous Solutions Project uses the insights of Mayan leaders and advocates such as Melel Xojobal to teach street educators and shelter workers respect and cultural sensitivity for indigenous street children (Completed successfully 2005, CD available Jan 2006).
• The Project on Tourism and Youth Homelessness is working to create an innovative partnership between the Italian tourist industry and Mexican organizations that help street children (research paper now available).
• The Critical Theory project is a partnership with Brasilian universities to develop the intellectual tools to understand the roots of youth homelessness (Project completed sucessfully in 2004; resulting papers available).
• The Street Kids and Soccer project supports an innovative public-private partnership to use football as a way to help street and working children find a better life (Completed successfully 2003).
• The Diverse Families Initiative documents and disseminates two of the most successful models for work with the families of street children Project completed successfully 2005; two-DVD course available Jan 2006).
• The School out of Place offers and important new model for reforming schools to deal with refugee crises, based on the work of Taller de Vida in Colombia (Project completed successfully in 2005. DVD now available)
• "Mi dolor se hace Murgancia" shows how the Argentine NGO Acción Educativa has used the joy of carnaval to imcrease the appeal and power of popular education (Project completed successfully 2005; CD-ROM now available)

Shine a light also supports the work of independent researchers and academics, including

• Documenting and distributing best practices with street girls (in collaboration with the Casa de Passagem).
• Advising in the creation of the first program for street kids in Veracruz, Mexico. (completed March 2003)

Lack of money and depressing working conditions mean that programs that work with street kids suffer constant staffing crises. The Shine-a-light Fellows Program funds graduate students in medicine, business administration, law, and psychology to volunteer with these programs. In the past, our fellows have founded the only program to feed and educate children who live in the Guatemala City dump, effectively managed a girl's orphanage, and provided medical care for hundreds of homeless children.

Unfortunately, funding constraints have forced Shine a light to postpone the implementation of several projects. If you would like to help us by volunteering, researching, or supporting these projects, please write SAL Executive Director Kurt G. Shaw.

• The Street Education Health Project will disseminate an STD prevention and public health curriculum developed by Mexico's El Caracol in the form of a CD-ROM and intensive training.
• The Program against sexual abuse will use the internet and CD-ROMs to distribute books and classes developed by Aldeia Juvenil of the Catholic University of Goiás, Brazil, perhaps Latin America's premier research institution on sexual violence against street children.
• The Escuela de la Imagen will connect kids in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, teach them the techniques of digital video, and allow them to tell the stories of their own lives.

If you'd like to financially assist any of these programs, please click here.