Street Youth Conference

Video: Opening remarks for the conference. A very special thank you to HBI's Carmen Elena Zavala Thompson, for all of her wonderful translation services and keen insights as the symposium moderator.

Primer Simposio de Jovenes Abandonados

Photo: Our assembled group of esteemed youth providers.

 

You never really know how an event is going to be received.

In some instances it is a bit flat, but still a success. In other instances the event falls flat on its face. Never quite living up to expectations and missing the mark of the attendees interest. Our first Street Youth Symposium in Arequipa was a huge success.

We had over forty participants from a number of different NGOs, government programs and faith-based initiatives from around the city of Arequipa. The conversations and discourses were rich. From a frank discussion about "what is working in serving abandon youth" to a "back patting" reflection on areas of triumph. It was a day filled with collaborative discourse and constructive discussions.

Our objectives for the day long symposium were a bit ambitious. We wanted to -

(1)  To advance the knowledge of providers and organizations working with homeless and abandon youth on promising practices from North American and the European Union in serving the unique and challenging needs of marginalized youth; and

(2)  Convene health and social service sector NGO’s toward the development of greater collaboration and partnerships around serving the needs of youth experiencing homelessness and abandon to the streets. 

In the end - we aptly exceeded both of these objectives. In the end - everyone left the symposium with a smile on their face and a keen interest in reconvening our group again later in the year.

One thing we did find in talking with the symposium attendees was the overwhelming interest providers expressed in learning more about the "best and promising practices" of homelessness service providers in the U.S.

During the symposium, we touched only briefly on what the research and clinical anecdote are teaching homelessness service providers in the U.S., U.K. and European Union. They all wanted to hear much more. They, almost everyone of the 40+ attendees at the symposium, expressed a desire for HBI to come back to Arequipa and help them to learn more about Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Informed Care (two areas of study the company I work for in the U.S. is highly skilled in).

Our next step is to review the post-symposium evaluations. We are entertaining the ideas of a city wide coalition and a series of informative "symposium" - but we want to make certain that our ideas are in alignment with the needs and desires of the Peruvian providers and organizations who attended the symposium. Our steps will be strongly shaped on their requests. Stay tuned for more -

Street Youth Symposium - here we go

Today was spent running around Arequipa getting all of the last minute errands completed for the Street Youth Symposium tomorrow. We had food to purchase, small gifts to prepare, final presentation materials to print and copy, and last minute PowerPoint presentations to translate. Needless-to-say, it was a full day.

We are expect over 50-participants (from a wide scope of organizations and faith-based efforts) at the symposium. Our goal is simple - to get people talking about what they are doing to care for abandon and homeless youth and young adults in Arequipa. We are hoping to gain interest from the attendees in creating a coalition of providers and organizations who will work together to form partnerships, care delivery collaborations and shared advocacy. We hope we can get people working together to end youth homelessness in Arequipa.

I am very hopeful that my Blog post tomorrow night is filled with much enthusiasm for the new coalition that was formed; and the many new partnerships that were hatched at the symposium. Stay tuned.

True Compassion

Today has been a full day . . . and it is not even over yet.

This morning we went to La Salle University to review the location for the Street Youth Symposium on Monday May 28. The facility is fantastic. The school has generously donated the entire use of their campus (well - not the whole campus) for our efforts.  A huge thank you to La Salle for their generosity and support.

After visiting with the La Salle administrators, we went to an albergue (a home) for special needs children. The home, run by a group of Catholic nuns from the order La Familia Religiosa del Verbo Encarnado, is one of the most compassionate examples of true service I have ever encountered. Pieced together on a plot of land no larger than one hectare, the nuns have an extensive network of educational, vocational and rehabilitation programs. The nuns work with abandon and neglected children from very impoverished areas. Areas where many of the street children come from.

Many of the children are brought to the "Instituto Servidoras del Senor de la Virgen de Matara" home by their mothers. The mothers often suffer from alcoholism, substance abuse or poorly managed mental illness. Their lives are extremely complex and filled with abuse and trauma. The nuns have been working to expand their housing to offer the opportunity for the mothers to move into the home with their children - rather than completely abandon them. It is a remarkable model that is serviced by 8-nuns and 12-staff.

We were given a full tour of the facilities and had the opportunity to meet with some of the children and the staff. At one point on our tour we were joined by one of the children's mothers. In fact, we had been carrying the child (an 8-month old) with us on the tour. He latched onto Carmencita (HBI's Peru Coordinator) and would not let go. The mother was very disheveled and appeared to be suffering from a mental illness. The nuns later told me that she had severe schizophrenia and was "heavily medicated." The nun told me that she was so severe that they had moved her into the albergue and were working to assure she had access to medication and treatment. The nuns told me that they were worried the child would also suffer from mental illness.

The most amazing part of this comprehensive service delivery model, an institution that houses, feeds, and truly cares for over 48-children, is the fact that they receive no government funding and rely solely on private donations. Their work is truly a blessing to all of the children of Peru and it was a real honor to meet with them today.

Meetings, meetings and more meetings

Photo: Truly a rare scene in Lima - a woman taxi driver; in fact, the three of us that were in the taxi had never seen a female taxi driver before - and between us we had well over 40-years of living and working in Peru. I think the driver really enjoyed our enthusiasm.

The past few days have been a whirlwind. We have been running around from meetings to meetings. Our goal, as always, is to learn about, become acquainted with, create partnerships with as many organizations as possible. As such, we spend a lot of time reconnecting with our in-country partners and meeting new NGOs.

We arrived in Arequipa late last night and went straight to an HBI team dinner. One of the young doctors who has volunteered with us over the past few years is back in Peru from Spain. He has been in Spain for the past 18-months completing an internship. He is slated to start a ENT surgical residency in Germany in September. It was great to spend some time with him and learn about all of the wonderful things that are happening in his life.

Today we head to La Salle University, the host for our Street Youth Conference on Monday. We are visiting with the rector and touring the facilities to set-up the symposium. We are expecting close to 50-participants for the invitation only conference. In addition to touring the facilities we have a list as long as our arms of "To Do" items in preparation for the conference. Today is going to be crazy busy. Good thing we have the full team in Arequipa to help.

Street Kids - that's not a problem here

Photo: Street kids in a cooking class at the Ninos del Rio program

Today we met with a street youth program in the community of Ica. Ica is a very impoverished community just on the outskirts of downtown Lima. It is a dense, urban area of alley ways and crowded streets. There is garbage on every corner and there is rank odor of decay everywhere.

The program, Ninos del Rio, is a collaboration between French and Peruvian organizations. They have been working for the last 10-years in a very impoverished area of Rimac with street children. Their work is around a drop-in center, computer lab, and workshops on education, trades and general skills advancement.

Our conversation today was about partnering together to build a coalition of programs and agencies working with street kids to collaborate their resources toward ending youth homelessness. We were concerned that they would be very suspicious of our motives. In fact they were. Our conversation did not start well. They wondered why we were in their office. They wondered what we had to offer. They were very suspicious of our motives. After an hour of conversation, I think, they began to realize that we only wanted to help. In the end - they trusted us.

We have decided to work together to plan a conference for September. In fact at one point their Director of Education said to us, "I prayed for something like this. . . and here you are. It is a gift from the heavens."

At the end of our meeting we met with a few of the street kids in their program. One of them, a young woman who was no more than 15-years old, had a child herself. The child is 18-months old. She is a beautiful young girl with a vibrant smile and a lively spirit. My instant thought was - "please protect her from a life of struggle and pain." I am not sure this prayer will come true. For I fear she will be thrust into a life of poverty and uncertainty. This is something I hope we can end.

At the end of our meeting I asked the leaders of the Ninos del Rio program to join us and work to unite all of the programs and NGOs in Lima who work with street children. I asked them to join us in ending the struggle and pain that permeates the lives of the kids we met tonight.

I am very hopeful for the next steps of our collaboration. I am very hopeful that we will work together to bring an end to youth homelessness in Peru. I am uncertain, however, of the future. One thing I know for certain - we will not stop trying.

Hit the Ground Running

We had a full first day in Lima. After meeting with a tailor to talk about a "hair brain" plan of mine to raise money for HBI and our street youth efforts - that is a whole separate story unto itself that I will tell later - we spoke with a group of volunteers at the OPERECE Organization in Surco.

OPRECE is a eye care non-governmental organization that provides low-cost and free (under Clinton Foundation funding) cataract surgeries for poor and under served patients. They are doing marvelous work all over Peru and we wanted to give them an opportunity to know how strongly HBI agrees with their work, mission and projects.

Tonight we had a meeting with the Executive Director of OPRECE, our HBI staff (Ben, Carmen and myself) and the lead surgeon (Dr. Francisco Cisnero) to talk about future collaborations and projects. We will be meeting with them again tomorrow to continue this conversation.

In addition, tomorrow we are meeting with a couple of street youth programs in the Rimac area of central Lima. The Rimac neighborhood is one of the poorest in the entire metropolitan area and has a tremendous problem with street youth. We are hoping to connect with NGOs in the area to talk with them about ways we may be able to support their work or advance their efforts.

We will post more updates manana. Until then - thank you for all of your support.

What a Month!

What a month the past few weeks have been. We have had a series of fundraiser events that have brought in over $30,000 for our work; and we have been laying the ground work to build toward a very busy summer of programs and projects.

As I type this message, Ben (HBI's Director of Operations) and I are headed to Peru for our Street Youth Symposium (please see the above flier). Our goals for the Street Youth Symposium are to facilitate collaboration and partnership between non-governmental organizations working with street and abandon youth in Lima and Arequipa. We know this is not going to be an easy endeavor. We are planning to follow-up our first symposium meeting with a secondary set of trainings and symposium in the fall.

Stay tuned to the Blog over the next week. We will be posting updates on the Street Youth Symposium meetings and providing more information about our full summer of activities.

The work of HBI would not be possible without supporters and friends like you. Thank you so much for making May a very successful fundraising period for HBI and thank you for your on-going dedication to the work of building bridges of collaboration and support.