Guatemala City Red Alert

Guatemala Red Alert is a City-wide project that does two main things:
a) Identifies and works with local projects helping street living, street working and 'high risk' children. Helping the local projects and people do what they do better and enabling them to work with more children.
b) Links or networks these existing local projects and people together with Churches, other organisations, civil society groups and Government (where possible).

The local Red Alert team, supported by Toybox and linked to Viva Latin America, are involved in many activities such as providing training to run projects better, improving care for children, improving facilitates for reaching more children and applications for grants to improve the work. In supporting and funding this work Toybox enables local people to develop, improve what they do and reach many more children thereby producing locally driven change by those who know best ... the people of Guatemala. Viva provide consultation which is necessary for the work and a link through their wider networks to other networks.

We went to Project Tabatha, which we visited last year. This project cares for children whose parents work the city rubbish dump for anything they can live on and in some cases live on the dump itself.

This is a desperate situation for children. We heard news of Chillis, who we met last year, who had lost her toes as rats had eaten them at night in her rubbish dump home. Chillis is now almost 2 years old but was not at the project the day we visited when we visited remains well cared for. We met another little girl whose family live on the dump who regularly attends this project. She looked well and was pretending to do the washing!

This project has clearly benefitted from the training and grants provided by Red Alert as there are more children cared for and they appear to have even better care. This was very encouraging as this project serves children from an horrendous environment …. Guatemala City rubbish tip!

As we left the project we drove along the main access street to it this area which is difficult to describe; the smell, the filth, the salvaging that is going on in this area to gain an income. Mattresses are stripped for their metal springs, cars bodies were laid around with very little left that resembles a car, heaps of plastic, twisted looking people many of whom were drunk or high on glue. At one point a very smart top of the range white BMW drove past us. Drugs are trafficked in this area …… Project Tabatha is well placed and it is a privilege for Toybox to serve these committed people working there. They declare huge gratitude to God for what they have and that they can keep going with their work. We so respect these people who strive in this harsh environment.

Near the vegetable and fruit market there is a ‘holding dump’ from which the rubbish is then transferred to the City Dump. We visited this and have to say were totally shocked by what we saw. There are 70-100 children living under plastic or small tin sheds. The smell is horrendous.

Alastair visited this place 4 years ago when 6 Children came off the street one very wet night. During the day the full desperateness of this place is so visible. The people are rummaging through the rubbish for food or anything they can salvage. Children bath in containers of stagnant water and play with bits of rubbish that they find.

We feel our words cannot describe this horrendous place sufficiently. We joined a Church who are visiting this place with support from Red Alert. Red Alert have managed to obtain permission from drug dealers and gangs for a Doctor, who is giving his time and medication for free, to treat approximately 30 families once a month. This allows Red Alert, the Church people, and the Doctor to begin building trust with the people on this dump.

At the same time children at risk of abuse or health-wise are identified. The Church wants to start a day centre at the dump for the children so they are not amongst the rubbish whilst the parents work. They want to teach the children, support them, help them with their health, give them life skills and help them spiritually. They are working hard to raise resources to deliver this. Red Alert is supporting them and guiding them in this and we pray that a day centre can start soon in this horrendous place.

The Government does have ‘homes of good will’. These do not live up to their name. Children who have escaped show signs of torture, maltreatment and tell horrible stories. From time to time children are ‘rounded up’ and taken to these Government ‘homes of good will’ …. this is a street child’s worse fear!!! When Toybox offers opportunities for supporters to take part in advocacy please do so. Please see the Toybox website for advocacy work.

We visited a new Projecto Stephen. This serves the children of a small town on the edge of Guatemala city called Satelite. This project started 3 months ago and so far has 23 children. Most of these children

come from single parent families and are either left at home to fend for themselves during the day or taken to work with their parent, often to a market stall, at best.  The project leader, Cindy, translated for Alastair on a previous trip which, as she visited different projects God inspired her to start this project. Early days, but we look forward to hearing news of it’s progress.

“Mi Especial Tresoro” project has twelve girls who have had the most horrendous experiences of abuse resulting in street living in most cases. In some instances court cases have resulted in the girls being taken from their parents. Two girls shared their experiences with us and we listened to their stories of abuse on every level on a scale difficult to imagine through tears.

The stunning part about these 2 girls was their expressions of forgiveness of their abusers, which they declared was because Jesus leads their lives now. They clearly still felt pain over the past, but we believe genuine forgiveness had occurred. One of them had met her abuser!! An absolutely incredible project that has grown from caring for 7 girls last year to 12 girls now. Training and grants from Red alert have been a contributor to this and it is good to see the grants put to such good use. This is just what Toybox hopes to see happen … local people with a passion supported to reach more children.

Red Alert told us many stories of children who have come off the street and are now being cared for. ‘Samuelito un reto para vivir’ is a project organised by a small Church in a very poor local community. This project now benefits from Red Alert support and is run by a young lady called Laura who is so committed to these children.

Through this work a child was identified as being at HIGH RISK. Pedro was a working child, humping bricks in a local foundry near his home. He told us last year that he didn’t go to school as he didn’t like it and anyway needed to work to help his family. He was so thin with arms like sticks and vertebrae sticking out of his back. At 10 years old he had a very enquiring mind and asked us lots of questions about England and wanted to know what it was like to go in an airplane. We talked for ages and he really struck a chord with us. Some you just cannot get off your mind and Pedro was one of those children that encapsulated for us one of the reasons why we care for the children of Latin America so much. So we did what we only could do back in England so far from Pedro’s situation; we prayed for him. That he would be protected from abuse, that he would be able somehow to go to school, that he wouldn’t have to work all day, that he would have enough to eat. Imagine our joy this year then when we heard that Pedro is in a safe home, going to school and can’t believe his ‘fat’ tummy! He got to the end of his tether eventually and told the people at the project that he was not happy with his life. His mother apparently was forcing him to work, even though she was not prepared to herself, and was giving him alchohol to numb his hunger pangs. Through the work at the Samuelito project he attended he received information about the good treatment that children should expect, and realised that his life was not as it should be. Please continue to pray for Pedro as, at the regular monthly visits his mother makes she tries to persuade him to come home as “the family need him”. He also needs prayer to help him catch up with his school work. He will be receiving extra help from the Educators who visit his home to help him and others like him, but it takes perseverance, especially when like most 11 year old boys he would rather be playing football than doing his lessons!

We visited a group of street children near the city dump. These were a sad group and a harsh reminder of the importance for Toybox to work on many levels, be it prevention, long term street children, advocacy in their countries and advocacy in the UK.

There were all ages in this group and some 22 year olds two of whom Alastair knows. Many thousands of children lives are changed by Toybox work. This was a hard reminder that not every child is successful. Alastair knew these two young men from his earlier trips to Guatemala (8 to 5 years ago). These two had reverted back to street life.

We spoke at length with the two young men about what had caused them to return to this life which was personal to them so will not write about this. Suffice to say the two boys asked us to pray for them and declared that they knew they needed to revitalise their faith, which they both acknowledged they had. They freely said that they wished to pray again for a change in their lives. Please pray for them …. It was very hard to leave them!!!

We left Guatemala with many mixed emotions. Easter day with Lauda was hard and uplifting, Pedro’s new life gives us hope for many other children in similar situations, Fundacion Castillo are brilliant and Red Alert we are delighted to see are having many, many successes …. Obviously some desperate situations and as ever walking away has been extremely difficult……

Alastair & Debbi