San Salvador city, where Toybox works in El Salvador, is very violent. There are many gangs that undertake criminal activity without any respect of life. Children are recruited and used for their purposes so street children and children at risk of becoming street children are very vulnerable. Street children have been through dreadful circumstances before arriving on the streets and this gang activity is therefore extremely damaging.
Toybox Ambassadors, who many donors to Toybox sponsor, are children elected by the children in their projects, to represent them. These children, as well as being sponsored, benefit from training workshops where they learn about speaking out for their rights and good treatment of children. These Ambassadors go back to their projects where they have workshops with the other children in their projects to pass on what they have learnt. The ‘Good Treatment’ Campaign is run by “Red Alert San Salvador” and these Ambassadors have now ‘vaccinated’ many adults AGAINST bad treatment of children. They go out into poor communities and speak with adults about good treatment of children and then give them a certificate … vaccinating them. Children benefiting from Red Alert San Salvador have been very busy with this. In fact El Salvador TV gave 6 advertising slots per day for several months together with Radio to support this campaign. If you wish to consider sponsoring an Ambassador who represents a project please go to the Toybox website. Sponsorship of an Ambassador supports the overall work in the Red Alert country you chose.
Red Alert San Salvador is also recognised by the Government giving Red Alert a voice at government level. The Government orphanage is developing a relationship and trust with Red Alert.
Projecto Moises
We visited Projecto Moises which is held in two stalls in a huge covered market. Children in the market are working there and therefore vulnerable to abduction and abuse. Some are not going to school but working all day here. Juan, the project leader, is an inspiration, with a huge amount of energy at the age of 79 years old, and full of love, which he delivers unconditionally to these children. Even local street children join in. He clearly communicates Jesus to them and helps them with life skills, application and purpose. Juan has benefited from training workshops from Red Alert in Child Protection and Well Being. He has also received grants for desks and materials he really needed to work with these children. It is so special to see the impact on this amazing work that Toybox contributions have made, thanks to God and the conviction He placed on donors hearts.
Hogar Delories Medina
Hogar Delores Medina is run by Maria who opened her home up as a residential project for street children, as they left the streets, 11 years ago. During that time she has received just over 100 street children. Of these 70 have returned to their families or have independent good lives. Sadly some of the 30 returned to the street and some have been killed. Maria remains positive and very grateful to God. Whilst we were there two former resident boys called in (ages 17 & 18), both very smart with their waxed hair and trendy clothes. They are a great encouragement to the boys living there as those there now can see what they could become in time. Maria loves to see her former boys and encourages them to visit. They are also great role models to the boys in the project … we could not agree more. They were two great boys/young men with wonderful faiths who clearly the present boys were pleased to see. Three very enthusiastic boys showed us around a self-built hydroponics vegetable garden. They grow all their own vegetables and sell some too that helps fund the project. Maria is an amazing lady who selflessly helps these boys. God has, and is, using her in an amazing way …. The boys love her. Maria is very grateful for the support she has from Red Alert including support from psychologists and opportunity to receive training to improve what she does. She gratefully showed us a new cooker and fridge, which have been bought with Toybox grants.
Jehova es mi Pasto
Jehova es mi Pastor Church runs a project which is in an extremely poor community, where there are many children at high risk of becoming street children. Many of the children either do not go to school but to work, or do go to school, but in both cases, without breakfast. This project has the children in two shifts Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and all 70 are at the project all day Saturday when they always receive either a cooked breakfast or lunch or both on Saturdays. This is a great preventative project that has benefited from grants for tables, chairs and a cooker together with child protection training. A very grateful group of children sang and made speeches of thanks.
Fundacion Amor
Fundacion Amor works with 75 children from extremely difficult backgrounds and abandoned children, many of whom need support to live their lives at home or in the residential part of the project. They are given educational reinforcement and school is encouraged and arranged when they are not going to school. Spiritual support, psychological support and games are also part of the programme. They also receive children that have been in gangs and help them. A particularly difficult group. School is operated for children in 3 shifts – morning, afternoon and evening. With school, the children tend to come in two shifts AM and PM so they either have breakfast or lunch though some have both!! This is yet another amazing project that is totally committed to children and doing amazing things and we are sure is preventing many vulnerable children from potential street life. San Salvador feels edgy and dangerous. There are many street working children for which this type of preventative work is vitally important.
Our final night produced a real challenge for us. Red Alert coordinates many street-work projects and we went with a group/project from an Assemblies of God Church. This group is very committed and Toybox is privileged to support them. They included Debbie and I as we spoke with and prayed for an extremely broken group of 20-25 street children. The work involved promoting a purpose for, and a desire to change, their lives as a Street Child has to decide for him or herself to come off the streets (if just taken off and into a home they usually just run away to the streets again as they have not taken the decision for themselves or learnt to trust adults beforehand) We met three children who Becky (our daughter) met when she came to El Salvador with Adrian and Bridget Plass photographing a year ago. We sent some pictures to her not knowing this. Becky recognised 3 that were still on the streets (5 of this group have come off the streets in the last 6 weeks). Please see her blog that reflects her comments about this.
We found, as always, the thought of leaving children like these for even one more night on the street a deep personal challenge. We pray that the Toybox vision will be fulfilled of a world with NO Street Children.
Gracias Senor que podemos jugar un pequeno papel en la vida de estos ninos. Gracias Senor por el apoyo Toybox recibe lo que hace una gran diferencia a lasque puede. Amen
We arrived in a ‘very hot’ Managua airport, Nicaragua on Sunday evening and went to our Hotel courtesy bus. As we waited in the bus a street child, a boy of about 13, was wandering around in a daze from glue sniffing. As our other travellers joined us, just before closing the bus door the boy tried to ask for money through the door. The bus driver totally ignored him…. A reminder that children are treated and known as ‘disposibles’ (disposables)!!!! It is children like this young boy who are, and are at risk of becoming like him, that Toybox exists for with a clear vision of ‘seeing a world with no street children’. www.toyboxcharity.org.uk
Managua Red Alert is a new project for Toybox and its local partner Viva in its early stages, responding to the research Toybox made of the needs of the city and what is already happening there.
On our first day we were taken out to see the communities where street living and street working children are coming from. 53% of Nicaragua’s population is under 18 years old, which means that there are a potentially high proportion of the population at risk.
Managua rubbish dump
Managua had a severe earthquake in 1972. The city was rebuilt on the other side of the hill that now separates the ‘New Managua’ from the ‘Old Managua’ which borders a lake and is now home to the poor many of whom have migrated to the city from the countryside. On the edge of the lake is Managua City rubbish tip. This is a horrendous environment that smells and is piled very high!! Many poor people compete with vultures and other hungry animals foraging here to survive, collecting anything that may be of value nutritionally or sold to raise money to live on. The other sources of income for these people are working on the streets in ‘New Managua’, including many street working children who are then at high risk of becoming street children. This work ranges from manning a market stall to prostitution, and sadly the inevitable drugs trade and violent crime largely driven by gangs. School IS NOT as high a priority as earning money, which the children are drawn into rather than going to school. It is from this environment that Children are at HIGH RISK of becoming street children. Red Alert Managua works with local Churches, preventative projects and projects that care for street children. This amounts to currently 1,622 children. We visited some of these projects …….
Car windscreen washers
The first project we visited, Projecto Remar, is in an extremely poor area which as we pulled up outside the gate we were shocked to see six older teenagers, one of which was waving a HANDGUN around. Projecto Remar receives children referred by the courts for a variety of reasons; usually abused, abandoned or street living. They care for these children and support them with psychological and spiritual help as well as reinforcing their education. The project is next door to a school that some of the children attend, so there is opportunity for Red Alert to assist the school with preventative work. We saw several smaller children who were not at school as they were unable to cope with attending because of the circumstances from which they had come. One little girl of 4 years old stood absolutely still and did not look up once whilst we were there………
We also visited a Church based project, Iglesia Rene Polanco, which is located in the heart of an area where many street children come from. We were met by an enthusiastic group of volunteers of this extremely well coordinated work, some of whom had been beneficiaries of this project when they were younger. They organise three nights and a full day Saturday of activity.
'Risky'
Monday night they collect the children by walking around the communities to escort them to the church where they meet. This is a great way of attracting children to the project. They always go different routes and as they walk their numbers grow to the point when approximately 70 children are with the group collecting others. This creates local interest and the project is growing rapidly as a result! Craft activities, Bible teaching, life skills, support for those abused and education reinforcement all takes place. Wednesday nights several small groups of 20-30 get together in mutual support groups for Bible Study and discussion. Friday nights are similar to Monday nights. Red Alert Managua supports the volunteers with training in Child protection and various other skills which support the work, together with sessions for the children in many areas of life. Toybox via Red Alert Managua want to build their capacity so they work with these and many more children AT RISK so that, for example, they can teach them to read and write. The combination of all these skills is intended to give many children a purpose to their lives and to build their confidence, so they do not end up working or living on the streets.
Managua is a very special city with a potential for a massive number of children leaving their families for life on the streets. The preventative work is sooo necessary.
