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Monday, 01 June 2009 |
Sr. Carol is a staff member at AMANECER, an orphanage network in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She is involved in the Saint Louis sponsored program, Pan y Amor.
 We of AMANECER – Yaykuna send you our fondest greetings and we pray that God will continue to fill your life with many blessings. Yaykuna is the first level of AMANECER and functions as an outreach to children and adolescents of both sexes who are high risk candidates for entering into the street culture. We also work with those who are totally immersed in the precarious lifestyle of the streets.
The program includes a day center that serves between 40 and 50 young people on a daily basis. The participants include boys between the ages of eight and eighteen years who come to use the showers, wash clothes, have both their bodies and spirits nourished as well as receive orientation from one of the staff members and/or the psychologist. There is medical attention available as well and the social worker visits both families and schools- Academic reinforcement that includes individual tutoring is available as are formation groups, which concentrate on values education, improving family relations, prevention of drug and alcohol abuse and other topics of interest to the young people. Parent meetings are held bi-monthly and the parents are encouraged to request support from the psychologist, social worker or any other person on the staff.
The services provided on the streets to those who work within the informal economy of Cochabamba as shoeshine boys, ambulatory venders, chauffeur’s helpers, etc. include mostly personal counselling, visits to schools and homes when requested. When the problems are of a serious nature, the young people are invited to take advantage of the services provided by the psychologist and/or social worker.
The staff also works in four high risk neighbourhoods that have been so designated due to the fact that many of the young people we find living on the streets are from these areas. They are residential zones that are made up primarily of families that have migrated to the city from extremely poor rural areas. The parents for the most part are away working within the informal economy for many hours from Monday through Saturday and many of the parents spend most of their Sundays in small neighbourhood “bars” where a cheap corn based alcoholic beverage called Chicha is sold as alcoholism is a serious problem within the Bolivian population. In addition to working with the children, the parents and neighbourhood based organization are given seminars and workshops that cover such topics as familial violence, alcoholism, the importance of education, etc.
The activities for those who live on the streets are totally motivational and they are always invited to come and spend time in the day center where the atmosphere is drug free. Many initially come for breakfast or the noon meal and gradually are able to increase the time they can remain without drugs. Recreational activities are a significant motivating factor as nearly all young people enjoy swimming or spending a day in the country and various young people who live on the street have taken part in day long outings. What follows next is a coordinated effort with Sayaricuy, the first residential phase of AMANECER, where the boys spend the day with us and then go to Sayaricuy for the night. Usually by the end of the second or third week of this routine, the young people decide to remain in Sayaricuy and ask only that we visit them there.
René, a twelve year old with more than a year’s experience on the streets, recently began to experiment with sniffing glue and smoking marihuana. Realizing where the behaviours were leading him, we worked intensely with him as well as with his father and stepmother and last week he entered Sayaricuy, where he has promised to remain until Christmas. Working together among Yaykuna, Sayaricuy and his parents, the goal is that he will become stable, will no longer be involved with drugs or with stealing and thus will be able to return to live with his family. At the same time, the father has agreed to seek help for his own alcohol abuse.
We also coordinate working for structural change through our participation in an inter-institutional consortium of organizations working with young people in high risk situations. The advances come about very slowly and require many hours of planning and meetings with different authorities.
The global economic crisis is affecting Bolivia at the present moment. Thus, we continue to need the support of our friends so that our commitment to those most in need will continue. We thank you for all you have done in the past and ask for your support in these difficult times.
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