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.