Toybox - let the Street Children live!
Toybox In-Depth
Where you can find out more about our work and the situations which affect street children in Latin America
Abandoned Children
Read about Rosio, one of the many children who are abandoned by their parents, and how Toybox is helping.
Children in prison
Read this in-depth article on the plight of children living in prisons in Latin America
Interview with Dennis Rojas of Red Alert, Lima
Read the Director’s thoughts on how the new Red Alert project will impact children and communities
On the Frontline
Read about Matt Wenham’s experience with the street team on the streets of Lima.
Tales from Latin America
Read about how a city can be Vaccinated Against Violence - our new Ambassadors’ project. By Angela Murray.
Toybox Red Alert Refuge
Listen to this podcast about the need and plans we are working in with our partner, Viva International, for a brand new refuge for street children in Cochabamba, to provide crisis care for children for whom there is currently not enough room amongst existing projects in the city.
Hope and more hope
Alastair Welford, chair of trustees, recently visited an old friend on the streets of Guatemala. Click here to read his account.
A view from the other side
Read Toybox supporter Sally Ellis's account of her recent backpacking trip to Guatemala with her two teenaged daughters.
Street children, God's office, and Miguel's future
Read this inspirational speech by Alfredo Mora, Regional Director of our partner, Viva Latin America.
Celebrating 15 years of Toybox
Faith Dwight talks to our Advocacy Coordinator Angela Murray about 'an evening with Adrian Plass' - a special event celebrating Toybox's fifteenth birthday. Click the play button below to hear this podcast.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
Earlier this year, the Committee on the Rights of the Child considered the latest report from Guatemala. Click here to read about Guatemala's progress in the field of children's rights.
'Dios te bendiga'
Trustee Alastair Welford tells this moving story of an encounter on the streets of Guatemala city in the newest edition of our newsletter, Stories from the Street. Read the full-length article here.
Di's journal
UK team member Di Parry recently visited Guatemala. Read this firsthand account of what she saw there. Then listen to Di talk about her experiences in a podcast!
From the streets of Guatemala to the corridors of Westminster!
Toybox was delighted to be able to represent the children of Guatemala at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Street Children held on 21st February 2007. Click here to read more information about how the children’s voices were heard and to hear more about how Toybox advocacy is seeking to make a difference for more and more children in Latin America
Leadership Academy
Stuart Pascall, Toybox trustee, shares with us about the leadership academy ran at the end of last year in Colombia, for 25 Christian leaders from various South and Central American countries. Read his article here
Latin America - new Challenges, new Responses
A representative from Toybox recently joined with other organisations, government ministers, ambassadors and academics at a conference in Chatham House to look at the challenges facing Latin America. Click here to find out more
A modern mission
This is an account of the street work in Guatemala written by Rev John Banner who visited the ministry some time ago but his account still rings true and provides a keen insight into the kind of situations children face and the work that our partner, El Castillo, carries out each day.....Read John's account here
An evening on the street
Alastair Welford, Toybox Chair of trustees, shares his experience of spending a evening on the street in Guatemala City. Read his story here
The big picture
Stuart Pascall's breathless reflections from a traveller in Bolivia - find out more here
Eyewitness
Lindsay Melluish visits families living on the edge in Escuintla, Guatemala - read here
Red Alert 'Early Encounters' project springs from research
Read the paper that provided the evidence and analysis for the development of our new Red Alert project.
Guatemala
We have been discussing the possibilites of introducing a fostering program as an alternative to living in one of our 'family style' homes where most of the children who come off the street live in. This would be especially for younger children who would benefit from more one to one attention. We will keep informed as and when this happens.
New Bolivian 'President of the People'
Bolivia leader halves his own pay
The Bolivian new left-wing President, Evo Morales, has cut his salary by more than a half to a little over $1,800 (£1,012) per month.
The decision means that the salaries of all Bolivian public sector employees will be reviewed, as no official can earn more than the president. Mr Morales said the money saved would be used to increase the numbers of doctors and teachers.
He also suggested that members of Congress should cut their salaries too.
During the campaign, Mr Morales had pledged to halve his own pay if elected.
The move announced after his first cabinet went beyond that, with a cut of 57%.
BBC South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler says many voted for Mr Morales believing that he was different from the more conservative politicians who have governed in the past. The former llama herder and coca leaf farmer was inaugurated last Sunday as Bolivia's first indigenous president. He has promised to fight corruption, introduce a new tax on the wealthy, and renationalise energy companies. Find out more at the BBC website
Prisons in Bolivia
Prisons in Bolivia are overcrowded, but not only with adults. More than 1,200 youngsters live there while their parents serve their sentences.
The head of Bolivia's penitentiary system, Tomas Molina, believes this situation is unique in the region. Under the country's legislation, children under six years are allowed to stay in their parents' cells.
However, Mr Molina acknowledges that they normally remain in jail until they are much older "because nobody else can care for them".
In the detention centre of San Pedro - the most populated male prison in Bolivia's main city, La Paz - there are 200 children.
"We have not had any problem with them. There is a sort of internal pact that, if an inmate harms a child, he is likely to face difficulties in the prison," says San Pedro's director, Ramiro Ulloa.
Children in that jail receive meals and education under a government-sponsored programme. They are also supervised by humanitarian groups.
'I misbehaved'
Inside the women's prison in La Paz's district of Obrajes, little boys and girls wander freely in the yard as if they were playing at school during a parents' meeting.
The jail's director, Celida Vera, says that more than 260 female inmates live there alongside 70 children. Many women have more than one child, and families sometimes have to share very small cells. One of the inmates, Briseida, says that she had to explain her son Carlos Patricio, 9, why she was in prison.
"I told him that I had misbehaved."
Most of the children in Obrajes do not why they live there. Many were born behind bars. Overcrowding seems to be worse in the Palmasola prison, in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, which holds entire families. Palmasola is considered one of the most dangerous jails in the country. Around 400 women are reportedly living there.
"It is like a town", says Tomas Molina.
For more information and photos please click on this link.
Violence against children and what young people think about it
A group of young people participated in the UN advisory panel with Profesor Paulo Pinheiro. Hannah Heard was there as a translator and reports the following. Read here for more
Hurricane Stan
With thousands killed or made homeless, the people of Guatemala still need help in rebuilding their country
Find out the latest news from various relief agencies here
What difference are we making? How do we measure it?
These are vital questions... Angela Murray from the Consortium of Street Children explains the Impact Assessment she carried out in 2005
Where do we go from here?
Some thoughts from Toybox Chief Executive, Andy Stockbridge, on the changing context for the work Toybox supports with street children and some pointers to the future ways we will be looking to work.
Andy Stockbridge, Toybox Chief Executive visiting Guatemala.
Download this article in PDF format
New Internationalist edition focuses on street children
Guatemala Congress declares “Day Of No Violence Against Children and Adolescents” in memory of Nahaman Carmona
Photo from BBC Mundo.com
Nahaman was thirteen when he was brutally murdered on the streets of Guatemala City. On March 13th he will be remembered as a symbol of No Violence Against Children
This is a significant step for the Guatemalan state to recognize their responsibility in protecting and promoting the human rights of children in Guatemala. Violence is a growing problem in the poor areas and streets of Guatemala, with some organisations stating that as many as an average of two children a day are murdered in the City.
The Day of No Violence has been promoted through Casa Alianza in Guatemala with the support of the Human Rights prosecutor, Sergio Morales and the Commission to Protect Children and Family, led by congressman Jorge Luis Ortega and ratified by the President of Guatemala. Nahaman Carmona’s was the first Guatemalan case in which members of the National Police Force were condemned for the violation of Human Rights against children. He was physically attacked by police whilst standing up for the group of six street children he was with when the police poured the children’s glue containers over their heads. Nahaman suffered head injuries and died from a haemorrhage to his stomach and liver damage, six days later.
Human Rights activist speaks out against US military aid for Guatemala
Photo: La Hora
Nery Rodenas, a human rights official who is executive director of the Human rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala City has verbally opposed efforts to bring back US military aid to Guatemala.
He said, “There is a climate of terror against Guatemalans. Violence is used to prevent freedom of expression,” at a briefing in Washington, USA, to American church officials.
The US announced $3.2 in military aid to Guatemala earlier this year.
Mr Rodenas said that “The army is still tied to corruption, its members are involved in summary executions.”
On April 26th 1998, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, who was head of the Archdiocesan Human Rights office was killed two days after issuing a report saying the military was responsible for most of the killings, disappearances and human rights violations during 36 years of civil war, ended in 1996.
Two seventeen-year-olds shot in Guatemala City
In April, a 17-year-old girl was shot dead as she slept in a city alleyway. A 17-year-old boy fleeing a gunman hid next to her and both were shot, the girl dying instantly, whilst the boy just survived.
This event illustrates the sad reality that violence continues to afflict Guatemalan society particularly children and teenagers, who flee homes because of social issues and extreme poverty, only to find themselves in a worse plight on the streets, where they are faced with hunger, violence, exploitation and often a violent death.
Caza Alianza recently reported that “an average of two violent murders of children occur every day only in Guatemala City.”