NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Serviço
Brasileiro de Justiça e Paz).
Number 499, November 7, 2003
In this issue:
- Brazil and Mexico have the greatest number of street children.
- The Work of the Pastoral da Criança
-Brazil and Mexico have the greatest number of street children.
In Latin America, Brazil and Mexico have the greatest number of street
children. The governments of these countries have not assumed a role in
eliminating this problem, leaving it to civilian
associations/groups. Judith Calderon, a journalist who has dedicated her
work to the problem of street children, recently researched this theme in
the countries of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Nicaragua. She commented on
a Mexican radio program that the biggest problems in these Latin American
countries are a lack of government initiative and social
indifference. Calderon's research became a book entitled, "Infancy Without
Help," which related her experiences with street boys and girls. She
explained that girls are more vulnerable to violence when they begin to
live in the streets. She cited the case of Brazil where very young girls
are subjected to harassment, mistreatment and sexual abuse.
Luis Enrique Hernandez, coordinator of O Caracol, said that a number of
factors explain why children leave their homes and live on the
street. Among these factors are extreme poverty and physical, emotional or
sexual abuse in the home. Many women who live in misery and who have
been abandoned by their partner will look for a new man to act as father in
the home. Many times this new father is abusive to the woman's children,
which prompt them to leave the house. He went on to add that when girls go
to the street, they will often find a group of adolescents with whom they
immediately identify as they too have been victims of violence. The
biggest growing age group of street children is 15-23 year-olds.
Aquiles Coliomoro, a juridical counselor for Casa da Mercedes, stated that
another dimension of the problem are girls who come to the city from the
countryside. They often find work as domestics, and then suffer harassment
from their employers. They flee to the streets and end up falling into
networks of prostitution and pornography. A lack of access to basic
services and food often force these girls to give sexual favors in exchange
for presents or commodities.
Specialists agree that a central problem is that street children have
become so common that the general public accept the phenomenon as simply a
fact of life. Also, the specialists see a real need to establish programs
and public policies which will effectively address the problem. Finally,
governmental bureaucracy needs to be eliminated so that organizations which
act in this area may receive help quickly.
Source: Adital/CIMAC
October 28, 2003
The Pastoral da Criança (the Children's Ministry) is a strong social
outreach of the Catholic Church here in Brazil. The foundress of the
ministry, Dr. Zilda Arns, has been nominated twice to receive the Nobel
Peace Prize. This year marks the 20th anniversary of this service to poor
of Brazil. The article below was submitted by a leader of Pastoral da Criança:
- The Work of the Pastoral da Criança
by Angelica Mortel
Gustavo is five years old and he grunts when you ask him a question. Last
year, one of his brothers set fire to their house and Gustavo was trapped
inside. Luckily, he was rescued and survived the fire, but the trauma
caused him to lose his ability to speak.
Sylvia, 6 years old, had awful abdominal pains one day and her mother
brought her to the health post. The medical personnel spent about five
minutes with Sylvia and diagnosed her case as simply a bad
stomachache. They recommended an over the counter antacid to settle her
stomach. The pains persisted and by evening Sylvia was fainting. Her
mother carried her on the bus to the nearest hospital where it was
discovered that she had appendicitis. She was rushed into surgery.
Henrique, now 3 years old, could barely walk a year ago because he was so
severely malnourished, weighing only six kilos. His mother had abandoned
him and a neighbor "adopted" him. Over the year, she helped to bring
him
back to health and today he is still a little unsure on his feet, but
weighs close to 12 kilos.
Rosa, 25 years old, was pregnant with her fourth child and due in a
month. Her husband had just been arrested for drug trafficking and left
her and three kids in a cardboard shack built over the sewer. She had
absolutely no income and was desperately trying to maintain her
sanity. She later put her newborn up for adoption for fear of not being
able to feed yet another mouth.
These are all people who are accompanied by leaders of the Pastoral da
Criança (The Children's Ministry). The Pastoral da Criança, a ministry of
the Catholic Church now celebrating 20 years of service, accompanies
children from 0 to 6 years old and pregnant women who are at risk of
malnutrition. It involves regular visits to the families, monthly weight
checks to follow the development of the children, distribution of
multimistura (a nutritional supplement), health care advocacy and pastoral
counseling. In the parish where I work, the Pastoral da Criança is present
in three favelas (shantytowns) and accompanies over 300 children and a
handful of pregnant women. The parish team is made up of 25 volunteer
leaders.
The core of the Pastoral's work is visiting families. Part of my job as
coordinator is to accompany the leaders on these visits. It is in these
visits that my eyes have been opened and my heart touched deeply. When you
enter into the home of a family, you are entering into their most intimate
space. Most often a family will live in one or two rooms, so a visitor can
see their living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom in one quick
glance. Once you get into their homes they usually can't hide the pain
and instability of their lives. I've met mothers who literally can't feed
their children. Others who, under the stress of unemployment and an absent
partner/spouse, get drunk and abuse their children. I've met children who
are malnourished, play barefoot in the sewer, have infestations of lice in
their hair and scabies on their bodies. I've seen babies with unknown
causes of fever and suspicious coughs. And, I've encountered kids who
can't walk or talk because they've suffered from trauma or persistent abuse
or malnutrition.
The leaders are really the heart of the Pastoral. The amazing part is that
they are all volunteers. Some work a 9-5 job during the week and dedicate
their weekends and free time to the Pastoral. Through their
initiative, we've started several "mothers' clubs," where mothers of
children in the Pastoral can go to learn handiwork and meet with other
mothers. The leaders have helped to find psychological counseling for
mothers and their kids, have accompanied families through the bureaucracy
of the public health system, sought help for women suffering domestic
abuse, offered mothers orientation on how to care for their newborn babies
and have listened many, many, many hours to mothers (mostly.because the
fathers are often absent) needing to "desabafar," which is Portuguese
for
"blow off steam."
If it weren't for the hope and enthusiasm with which the leaders do their
work, I think I would have given up a long while back. The health
situation can seem so hopeless and dire because of the depth of the
problems. The leaders' faith and their example have given me the courage
to carry on. Many of them are as economically poor as the families there
are visiting and accompanying. I often think they are truly giving from
their sustenance and not their surplus.
Angelica Mortel is a Catholic missionary working in the city of Sao Paulo.
The reproduction of this material is permitted as long as the source is
cited.
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