The first project we visited was Corazon Grande, one of the projects that have ‘graduated’, has doubled the number of girls it is reaching in the last year and is now supporting 28.
One of the girls we met last year was Patti who is now 6 years old and has had to get over the impact of drugs and alcohol that her mother took when she was pregnant with her is making good progress. We also remember another girl called Rosita (now 6) who was at the project last year. Some of her other siblings have been found in other projects via Red Alert and are now all together in the same project. Although it would have been good to see Rosita we are pleased she is now with her siblings.
Esperanza Viva is a project that works with whole families who come from street living life. In some cases they are from families that have lived on the street for three generations. This is hard to understand but sadly a reality. Many of these families have had no education and cannot read or write. This project provides an environment where they can come off drugs and alcohol. They are given training in bread making, sewing, mechanics or carpentry.
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| Maria and Damaris 3.5 years ago in Esperanza Viva |
Jonnie knew this family from when he did voluntary work at the project last year. Fernando, Maria and their daughter Damaris (6) left the project and were living independently and had started a bakery business. We met Maria and Damaris but sadly Fernando had recently been drinking and had gone back to the streets.
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| Maria and Damaris with friends May 2011 |
Red Alert know where he is and are following him up we are pleased to say …. Please pray for this family, that they are restored, and that Fernando can fully overcome the impact of his former street life.
We visited Villa Libertad which has changed significantly in the last year. The real benefits of the training and grants are now showing. We met a 6 year old girl last year called Maria who had been abandoned on the streets and has very severe tunnel vision. She makes a great effort to see things and is extremely active and hardy as she frequently bumps into something or falls. This year she was much calmer and appeared to be settling.
All the children are given psychological and educational support, They are helped with gaining purpose in their lives and with a life plan. This was demonstrated by one of the Ambassadors for the project called Berta who is now just 17. Ambassadors are representatives of the project elected by the other children in the project. They are supported by Red Alert and benefit from Leadership training and are taught about Children’s Rights.
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| Berta - Ambassador |
They frequently advocate for good treatment of children in their community and to local Government. This gives them a ‘value’ and ‘purpose’ and is a very important part of their development. They also teach other children in the projects what they have learnt which the children love. They are given the opportunity to put into practise advocating Children’s Rights on many occasions. These children are also the Child Ambassadors that can be sponsored through Toybox. They represent their projects and the City-Wide Red Alert so sponsoring helps in many ways. If you would like to consider sponsoring an Ambassador please go to the Toybox website Ambasador sponsor link.
El Refugio is the refuge in Cochabamba which is emergency help / accommodation for children. Work with these children at every level takes place and with their families. The aim being reintegration with families or if that is not possible placing with a project in Red Alert with the specialist care necessary for that child. The refuge in Cochbamba is possible because a very generous donor from Toybox seeded the initial funds which have been added to by other donors. This is a very necessary project and helps many children.
We visited what used to be a beautiful park, which on previous visits Alastair had been told was not safe to visit!!!! Understandably we went with some nervousness but were soon reassured by the project working there linked into Red Alert called Estrelles en la Calle. The park had been taken over by street living people most of whom were children. The area we visited was a plastic sheeting home to about 30 children. This was simply an awful environment. The smell of glue and sewerage was very strong. The area was filthy and littered with rubbish including old glue bottles, old mattresses, furniture, bits of metal and children ‘high’ on glue. The feeling of this place was just horrible …. We are lost for words to describe it adequately!!
The people from the project clearly had a good dialogue with these children and were gaining their confidence. A 16 year old girl was totally lost and eventually sat talking to Becky and Debbie …. As she thawed out a bit from the glue she ended up cuddling up to Debbie, wimpering. Such a sad sight and experience of desperation.
A 17 year old boy asked Alastair to pray for him. When we arrived he could hardly stand up because he had taken so much glue. He likewise eased off the glue as we interacted with these children and eventually had a reasonable chat about his life which involved abuse in every way, abandoned (yet hoping his father would return) .… just awful. He said his birth had not been registered which meant he could not find work and the Government did not recognise he existed .. he lived in fear that the Police would capture him and his friends and take them away to a place that he described was even worse than where he was now living!!!
It was another boys 17th birthday and we had brought cakes from the Esperanza Viva project we visited the day before for him. Birthdays are a ‘big deal’ in Latin America and frequently are a time when life is evaluated. When we arrived this boy was in uncontrollable tears and sniffing glue. It appeared as if he was trying to forget everything on ‘the day’ when he would be evaluating his life … his birthday! The other children with him clearly cared for him and encouraged him to participate with the cake and hearty renditions of ‘Happy birthday’ in English and Spanish. He smiled for a while …. As we left the team with these children we saw him cutting his forearms with a knife. This is such a dreadful situation and simply is NOT RIGHT.
We visted an extremely poor community on the outskirts of Cochabamba where a Church called Hermoso works with 100 plus children preventatively. They provide food, education, counselling, and spiritual support, all very necessary to prevent these high risk children from living a street life. This Church has benefited significantly from training and grants from Red Alert and is now reaching all these children which a couple of years ago had no help!!
We visited Projecto Emanuel where Jonnie has also been working. This is a project in the Red Light area of Cochabamba where it is estimated there are in excess of 10,000 prostitutes. This project cares for the children of prostitutes and provides very, very necessary support as these children are involved with cleaning the brothels and are at high risk of being drawn into a similar way of life, trafficking or street life. When we visited this project last year Red Alert had helped the project register 500 children’s births with the Government. Gorretti, the project leader, is an amazing lady who runs the project from her home. She visits the Mothers as well to support them and encourage them to change their lives. She is so committed and a wonderful person. It is people like Gorretti who have a clear calling and passion to work with children that Toybox support through Red Alert. Gorretti knows the needs of this community best and is in the process of fund raising locally to build a refuge for the most at risk children of prostitutes.
Cochabamba is a colourful city in a lovely climate in some ways beautiful….. BUT!
Alastair & Debbie
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