© 2008 streetkidsdirect.org.uk

 

UK Registered Charity No: 1102894

 

NOTES FROM DUNC'S DECEMBER 2006 TRIP  

 

'ABANDONED BY ALL' As I arrived in Guatemala it seemed that the capital was already celebrating Christmas with the shops full of Christmas decor and Christmas music.. Christmas can be a difficult time for those who are alone, but especially difficult for the street children as the annual festivities are a constant reminder to them of their abandonment.

It was interesting as well as extremely sad for me to hear from three different groups of street kids how their feelings of abandonment were being enforced by projects who were supposed to help them. In one park in the centre of Guatemala City myself and Brenda, a Guatemalan volunteer, bumped into a worker from an organisation working with street kids who had to make a visit on his own to find a street child because the street team were too afraid of going to this park! While we were speaking together a small group of street kids gathered around us and began to tell us how all the organisations that used to help them had stopped visiting them in favour of working with 'easier kids'. In two other places we visited that day the kids told us the same story. There seems to be an urgent need to begin a regular outreach project to these kids as no one else is there doing it and I will be looking at how such a work can be supported.

 

ON THE STREETS. Marvin (sleeping above) had left his home in El Salvador because of a situation he didn't want to tell me about and was now living with a group of other street kids right alongside a rather exclusive hotel in the capital. Marvin, 12 years, enjoyed our company and it wasn't long before we were being hugged and thanked for visiting.

In the same place where Marvin was sleeping, a young family had taken up residence. The young parents had a four-month-old baby (photo) and a two-year-old boy who was running around near very busy traffic. Their two other children were no longer with them. One, a five-year-old was 'removed' by a government agency and the other, a three-year-old girl, disappeared one night from under their pile of blankets as they slept. What shocked me was the sight of this lovely little baby of just four months sucking on a chicken leg!

We moved onto the bus terminal where upon we found a couple of girls sitting with an older lady outside a brothel. One of the 17 year-old girls already had a son and when we enquired how old he was she told us he was now four. The other girl had come from the countryside with her 31 year-old husband who was making her prostitute herself. Whilst we talked together two other young girls walked into the brothel hand-in-hand with three lads, one could not of been more than 13. It was nice to be able to be a friend to the girls and when I opened up my back-pack and began to administer some first aid a small group of men gathered around to watch. This annoyed me, so I turned around and said in a loud voice 'thanks for coming to the show gentlemen, I hope you enjoy all you see but now is the time for the offering'. I received Q5.00 in donations before the men dispersed and was able to use the money to buy headache tablets for one of the girls.

 

HIGH RISK KIDS. The outreach work among a group of high-risk kids in Guatemala City is beginning to develop as the kids and their families are trusting us more and more.

The kids had pleaded with us to take them to a swimming pool and so this time we visited a private park with two swimming pools - both filled with the coldest water I have ever jumped into!

One of the boys, eleven-year-old David, is at very high risk of taking to the streets as his step-father is mistreating him and when the abuse gets very bad David sleeps on the streets. David is not in the photo above as he appeared rather sad throughout the day. We are continuing to look for a place that David could live or a family who may wish to offer him a home. His situation is not good and friends in Guatemala have offered to continue to visit David and monitor his situation, especially now he re-starts school again - back into class one!

 

CHILDREN'S HOMES IN HONDURAS. Street Kids Direct helps to support three children's homes in Honduras, one in the capital and the Manuelito homes situated one hour from the capital in a town called Talanga. The Manuelito children's home (above) is planning the construction of its third house on this site for boys.

There are already two homes, one for boys and one for girls. Last year I was able to arrange funding for the construction and equipping of a computer lab for the home, which they are planning to open to children from the town in the very near future.

It was fantastic to be able to see how one girl, Maricela, had come from an appalling situation and very rough-and-ready through into the home. I went with Jorge Pinto, the pastor who founded the ministry, to collect Maricela from the transitional home in the capital, where she had been living for nearly six months, and journeyed with her to her new home. All the children had made cards, a banner and written touching welcome notes for her and this photo (left) was taken after many of the children had stood up and said how pleased they were to welcome her to be part of their family. Maricela was very moved but tried not to let it show too much.

I then spent some time with a new home Street Kids Direct is helping to fund, the Centro Integral home in the capital, Tegucigalpa. I had been given a rather large quantity of clothes, shoes, colouring books, colouring pens and pencils for this home and when the children gathered around my three large army sacks and helped me unpack they seemed to have more fun playing with the bubble wrap than with the gifts! Don't you just love kids?

Global Care, a charity in the Midlands, have agreed to help fund the home through their child sponsorship programme. I am now trying to help find as many sponsors as possible to help fund this home.

 

KIDS ON THE CITY DUMP. I have been asked to help with a new project working with children on the city dump. The project was founded a few years ago by an amazing man called Jeony who worked alongside Jorge Pinto in his outreach to street kids.

Perched on the top of a hill on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa the city dump is home to many families and during the day hundreds of men, women and children scavenge through other people's leftovers, recycling rubbish and where possible finding food to feed themselves.

Jeony has asked me to make a short video of the work in order to help him raise the funds needed to help the kids who work on the dump. This is an incredible work and one I wish I could help more. When I next visit in April I will be filming the work and then will need a few hundred pounds to turn the footage into a short promotional DVD. If you would like to help with this please do let me know.

 

ABANDONED BABY RESCUED. One of the most amazing experiences of my last trip was going out on the streets of Tegucigalpa and getting to know the kids who, like the ones I had left behind in Guatemala, were trying to make some sort of life out of desperate sadness. Herbert Paiz, the man who had helped me when I started the El Castillo project for street kids in Guatemala, came with me to Honduras and was invited to speak in the church about his experiences over the last 13 years. After he had finished speaking many people came forward and asked to go out that night onto the streets.

I joined the new volunteers in their, at first, frightening experience of working with the kids. As I was helping this boy with his small drink in a bag, one of the volunteers found an 18-day-old baby boy in a small cardboard box.

The box you see here on the left was home for the baby boy, abandoned by his mother and 'looked after' by a small group of street kids fairly high on solvents. The baby seemed in good health and despite trying to find the mother it was not possible to leave the baby there on the streets that night, so he was taken to the hospital.

The following day we took him to a court where we had to register the baby as abandoned. I waited outside the court room whilst papers were signed and statements taken.

Then the clerk came out and stood in front of me and said 'the judge has decided to name to baby after you, he will be called Duncan Manuel! How cool is that? Some may say 'poor child' but everyone seemed very excited that the boy could share my name.

Baby Duncan is currently being cared for by the authorities and if no adoptive parents can be found for him, he will be able to move into the Manuelito children's home.

I had the most incredible time and could continue for many more pages with so many more stories, but feel that I should leave it there for the moment before you run out of screen! Thanks for your support, please continue to give and get involved and help me help as many of these kids as we can.

Duncan Dyason