Toybox - let the Street Children live!
Prevention - better than cure!
High Risk Community Teams
Many thousands of children live at high risk in the poorest communities. Unsupervised, neglected, undernourished and often abused, the lure of joining a gang is a great threat.It is a short step from being a high risk child to a street child.
We support high risk comumunity teams offering education, social, medical and legal help for children at high risk and their families, helping stem the flow of children onto the streets.
These teams get alongside the families in the poorest communities, enabling the children to study, many for the first time, and providing opporunities for them 'to be children again' in a safe and healthy environment.
Children come along to Regional Centres where they can get help with their homework, have a chance to do some sports and craft activities, and find someone to talk to.
We believe in the importance of empowering families and breaking the cycle of poverty. Parents are offered parenting classes and have opportunities to learn skills trades in local demand such as sewing and bakery. We have also started a micro business project. One mother of seven comments:
“Thanks to the team that have helped me, I'm going to do my best for my children. I want to support them well, and with the help of God I can”
Red Alert
When a child in Bolivia finds their way to the streets of a big Bolivian city like Cochabamba, they are desperately looking for hope.
Whether or not they find it depends on what happens during the first twenty minutes to two hours they spend on the streets. This brief period of time will determine whether the child lives and thrives or suffers and dies.
Our Red Alert project in Cochabamba is what is sometimes known as an 'early encounter' project. This means making contact with the child who has just arrived onto the street, to try and give them other options than street life, as soon as possible BEFORE they start having a street lifestyle. This makes eaving the street much easier as they won’t have to deal with drug addiction and other things that make making healthy and safe new life choices difficult.
People from church organisations and established projects have joined with others such as market traders, taxi drivers, station staff and bus drivers to make sure that the children arriving on the streets are offered friendly help and a safe place to stay.
This project has the potential to help 1200 children a year over the next five years.
Prevention
