Street kids

Today was one of the hardest days I have had in my travels. I have worked with people that have had very very poor living conditions but have never seen anything like I saw today. We went to a shelter for Street kids. The police pulled up at the same time as us.... as we got off the director of the shelter asked us to wait a moment....we waited as we watched the police talk to kids around 10 or 11 years old, they took some things away from the kids and the police went on their way. The director of the shelter came over to explain what was going on.... and said that a group of kids came today who were very high and started causing trouble so they had to call the cops. These kids were 10/11 years old! We went in and the director gave us an introduction to the shelter and all that they do. It was hard to hold back my tears as they I translated for him. He started by saying that they work with indigenous kids, kids that sell candies on the street, but mostly with kids that live on the streets and don’t have any contact with their parents....he went on to say that these kids range from 6 to 17 years old!!!! We were warned to keep all our belongings very close to us and to hang on to our cameras tightly, and not to give anything to the kids because they would sell it on the street and buy drugs. These are all just little kids. We started playing with the kids and I was talking to a couple of the boys that were clearly on something and asked how old they were 12 and 14, living on the streets and no parents. And they weren’t playing soccer....when I asked why they said because the ball hurt their feet too much...I looked down to see bare feet, calloused and cut. I felt so completely helpless, and you can’t give them shoes because again they’ll sell them and buy cocaine. I just wanted to sit and cry and hug these kids.

The shelter was government funded and was able to provide the kids with a place to sleep and get off the streets, but with the new government in power they took away all funding. They are now funded by local churches and an organization that Power to Change works with called Jesus Responde, but they only have funds to feed the kids and to have the doors open from 8am to 3:30pm and then the kids are back in on the streets. It is so tough on the volunteers (all workers are volunteers) to see these kids each day going back on the streets.

As we left the kids were leaving too.....stopping by the bushes to pick up the drugs they ditched before entering the shelter. Our bus driver had to call the cops while we were with the kids because some other kids were trying to break the bus windows and the windows on Avelinos car.

We were able to play with the kids and show them a bit of God’s love, still we all feel so helpless and small in comparison to what these kids go through every day.