Life on the Streets
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While many of us are going about our daily activities unaware of the atrocities that daily haunt the lives of children who are in search for the definition of love, there are an estimated 100 million children living and working on the streets in the developing world. Over half of this disturbing number is in Latin America alone; approximately 40 million. Drifting souls chasing temporary love to satisfy the hunger pains that echo from the depths of their fragile souls. Hunger pains that not only long for food, but also are inner signals of their heart crying out for true love.
Most these precious street children (75 percent) have some kind of family connection, most of whom have been abandoned and orphaned by civil war, natural disasters, abused or rejected by dysfunctional and poverty-stricken families, and further traumatized by the corrupt mentalities and philosophies of the societies in which they live. They have been forgotten and are growing in numbers. Many of these children cannot even comprehend what it feels like to be loved, too young to understand their fate. Unaware that they have a destiny, and that this is not it. They turn to begging, stealing, selling trinkets, shining shoes, or washing cars to supplement their families' income, most never go beyond a fourth-grade education leaving them in a never ending cycle of poverty and hopelessness. Other children are forced to sell their fragile innocent bodies for a hot meal, a hot shower, and a clean bed, sniffing glue to remove themselves from their reality, a high to hide their pain. Drifting on illusion, trapped in confusion, searching for the solution to their hearts pollution, they live everyday on the edge of survival, leaving them so vulnerable that they often experience beatings, illegal detentions, torture, sexual abuse, rape, murder, and even kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. The family structure has been destroyed by poverty, lack of education, and in the midst of their struggles they have forgotten the definition of love.
The remaining 25 percent of these precious children live in the streets, drifting through the streets often in a group with other children, they have become known as "street children". For many years the governments addressed them as "The forgotten ones". These fragile children sleep in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in doorways, or in public parks. Drifting through the streets in search for food, inner peace, and love, crying out for someone to hear their inner pains, longing for affection, searching for their destiny, trapped in situations of despair they often resort to petty theft and prostitution to survive. In their attempt to calm the raging sea within the caverns of their souls most are addicted to inhalants, such as cobbler's glue, which offers them an escape from their reality, a high to hide their pain, and takes away hunger for just a moment. In exchange for this temporary escape they experience a host of physical and psychological problems, icluding hallucinations, pulmonary edema, kidney failure, and irreversible brain damage. Many are victims of abuse and robbed of their innocence, and often times these precious children have been robbed of life itself through murder by heartless individuals, gangs, police, other authorities and individuals who are supposed to protect them. Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by parents are the most common reasons why children leave their families. Parents have become consumed with their inner baggage that it has caused emotional decay within the chambers of their soul. Psychologists and social workers refer to the problem as "family disintegration" -- the breakdown of the nuclear family. The lost definition of love.
Throughout Latin America, millions of children are born into shantytowns, colonies that have mushroomed on the periphery of large cities during the last 30 years, a result of rapid urbanization and the absence of land reform policies. In Guatemala, two percent of the population owns 80 percent of the agricultural economy -- the arable land.
Victims of civil unrest and other societal dynamics, the children who take to the streets are viewed by some social psychologists as adapting functionally to otherwise unworkable home situations.
The social phenomenon of street children is increasing as the third world population grows. In fact, the largest-ever global generation of children will be born in this decade. Four out of ten urban dwellers are expected to be under 18 years of age by the year 2000. That number is expected to increase to six out of ten by 2025.
Statistics:
Guatemala - 86% of the population lives in extreme poverty, which means they cannot meet on a regular basis their most basic needs for food and shelter. An estimated 200,000 abandoned children live in Guatemala.
Honduras - 80% live in extreme poverty.
Mexico - Mexico City is the most populated city in the world, it is estimated that 3 out of 10 children fight to survive in the streets, and there over 2,000,000 children living or working on the streets throughout the city.
Brazil - Homeless children in Brazil number around 12 million.
Nicaragua - In Managua there are over 15,000 children fighting for survival on the streets.
Costa Rica - A popular tourist attraction for sex with under aged boys and girls, about 30,000 children are involved in prostitution (Slavery) throughout Costa Rica.
Innocence Lost
Some facts on the sexual behavior of street children in Guatemala...
A study of 143 street children between the ages of 7 and 17 in Guatemala City reported:
About 70% had one to two partners per day; 4.2% had three to four partners per day; and 25.1% (92.31% of the girls), reported more than four partners per day. 93% referred to having had previous cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). The children, at the time of being interviewed, presented actual cases of: genital herpes, 78.3%; gonorrhea, 46.65%; papilomatosis, 27.3%; vaginal trichomoniasis, 13.29%; chancroids, 11.7%; and scabies, 69.9%. 100% of the children used solvents, such as glue, as their drug of choice. 96.5% use drugs daily; 3.5% weekly. None of the children used contraceptives.
Further, the study also reported:
100% of children interviewed had been sexually abused. Among them, more than 53% reported they were abused by family members; 5.95% were abused by friends; 2.7% by neighbors; and 46% by people they didn't know. 64.1% of the girls reported that the first person with whom they had sexual relations was their father or mother; 10.2%, uncle or aunt; 10.2%, brother or sister; 2.6%, friend; 5.1%, boyfriend or girlfriend; 7.7% other.
They are selling Children!
When people think of Latin America they think of beautiful vacation resorts, and captivating beaches, but if you stop for a moment and step out of the fantasy world that hotel resorts have created for you will witness a deep rooted history of poverty, abuse, and slavery. Travel throughout Latin America and learn the truth about the lives of children that are suffering as visitors are chillin on the beaches sipping on margaritas.
An estimated 500,000 girls younger than 16 are in prostitution in the northeast states of Argentina. Peru has over 10,000 child slaves in the city of Lima alone. According to a Brazilian Congressional Inquiry, Brazil has over 12,000,000 street children, and over 500,000 women and children in prostitution. Experts also estimate that over 35,000 women are trafficked out of Colombia. San Jose, Costa Rica receives millions of foreign visitors every year. Many foreign businessman (majority from the United States) come to Costa Rica to enjoy the freedom of legal prostitution, and the easy access to under-aged girls and boys for sexual purposes. You can go on the web and search through thousands of websites offering a travel agency type service to Costa Rica and throughout Latin America to reserve a girl for a night before you even enter the country. There are over 30,000 children involved in prostitution in Costa Rica. South America into the international prostitution market, bringing $500 million dollars in criminal profits to the traffickers. That figure represents over $14,000 per trafficked person.
Many women and children are kidnapped, purchased, and sold as products for the sex trade Industry from all over the world and trafficked into Latin America, and the United States. Central American countries are gateways into the United States and the U.S. Department of State conservatively estimates that 50,000 women and children are trafficked [illegally and against their will] into the United States annually. There is more slavery today than there has been in all of history. It just has a different face, and uses more modern methods to disguise it's sick motives. The sex trade industry is well organized, and it is estimated that it earns an income of over six billion dollars annually. Please remember the good outnumber the bad. The reason why the sex trade industry has been more successful in its efforts is because they are unified. When the good begin to unify, working hand and hand in a movement of love and hope, only then will we defeat those who attempt to rob and sell innocence.
Statistics
Most these precious street children (75 percent) have some kind of family connection, most of whom have been abandoned and orphaned by civil war, natural disasters, abused or rejected by dysfunctional and poverty-stricken families, and further traumatized by the corrupt mentalities and philosophies of the societies in which they live. They have been forgotten and are growing in numbers. Many of these children cannot even comprehend what it feels like to be loved, too young to understand their fate. Unaware that they have a destiny, and that this is not it. They turn to begging, stealing, selling trinkets, shining shoes, or washing cars to supplement their families' income, most never go beyond a fourth-grade education leaving them in a never ending cycle of poverty and hopelessness. Other children are forced to sell their fragile innocent bodies for a hot meal, a hot shower, and a clean bed, sniffing glue to remove themselves from their reality, a high to hide their pain. Drifting on illusion, trapped in confusion, searching for the solution to their hearts pollution, they live everyday on the edge of survival, leaving them so vulnerable that they often experience beatings, illegal detentions, torture, sexual abuse, rape, murder, and even kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. The family structure has been destroyed by poverty, lack of education, and in the midst of their struggles they have forgotten the definition of love.
The remaining 25 percent of these precious children live in the streets, drifting through the streets often in a group with other children, they have become known as "street children". For many years the governments addressed them as "The forgotten ones". These fragile children sleep in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in doorways, or in public parks. Drifting through the streets in search for food, inner peace, and love, crying out for someone to hear their inner pains, longing for affection, searching for their destiny, trapped in situations of despair they often resort to petty theft and prostitution to survive. In their attempt to calm the raging sea within the caverns of their souls most are addicted to inhalants, such as cobbler's glue, which offers them an escape from their reality, a high to hide their pain, and takes away hunger for just a moment. In exchange for this temporary escape they experience a host of physical and psychological problems, icluding hallucinations, pulmonary edema, kidney failure, and irreversible brain damage. Many are victims of abuse and robbed of their innocence, and often times these precious children have been robbed of life itself through murder by heartless individuals, gangs, police, other authorities and individuals who are supposed to protect them. Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by parents are the most common reasons why children leave their families. Parents have become consumed with their inner baggage that it has caused emotional decay within the chambers of their soul. Psychologists and social workers refer to the problem as "family disintegration" -- the breakdown of the nuclear family. The lost definition of love.
Throughout Latin America, millions of children are born into shantytowns, colonies that have mushroomed on the periphery of large cities during the last 30 years, a result of rapid urbanization and the absence of land reform policies. In Guatemala, two percent of the population owns 80 percent of the agricultural economy -- the arable land.
Victims of civil unrest and other societal dynamics, the children who take to the streets are viewed by some social psychologists as adapting functionally to otherwise unworkable home situations.
The social phenomenon of street children is increasing as the third world population grows. In fact, the largest-ever global generation of children will be born in this decade. Four out of ten urban dwellers are expected to be under 18 years of age by the year 2000. That number is expected to increase to six out of ten by 2025.
Statistics:
Guatemala - 86% of the population lives in extreme poverty, which means they cannot meet on a regular basis their most basic needs for food and shelter. An estimated 200,000 abandoned children live in Guatemala.
Honduras - 80% live in extreme poverty.
Mexico - Mexico City is the most populated city in the world, it is estimated that 3 out of 10 children fight to survive in the streets, and there over 2,000,000 children living or working on the streets throughout the city.
Brazil - Homeless children in Brazil number around 12 million.
Nicaragua - In Managua there are over 15,000 children fighting for survival on the streets.
Costa Rica - A popular tourist attraction for sex with under aged boys and girls, about 30,000 children are involved in prostitution (Slavery) throughout Costa Rica.
Innocence Lost
Some facts on the sexual behavior of street children in Guatemala...
A study of 143 street children between the ages of 7 and 17 in Guatemala City reported:
About 70% had one to two partners per day; 4.2% had three to four partners per day; and 25.1% (92.31% of the girls), reported more than four partners per day. 93% referred to having had previous cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). The children, at the time of being interviewed, presented actual cases of: genital herpes, 78.3%; gonorrhea, 46.65%; papilomatosis, 27.3%; vaginal trichomoniasis, 13.29%; chancroids, 11.7%; and scabies, 69.9%. 100% of the children used solvents, such as glue, as their drug of choice. 96.5% use drugs daily; 3.5% weekly. None of the children used contraceptives.
Further, the study also reported:
100% of children interviewed had been sexually abused. Among them, more than 53% reported they were abused by family members; 5.95% were abused by friends; 2.7% by neighbors; and 46% by people they didn't know. 64.1% of the girls reported that the first person with whom they had sexual relations was their father or mother; 10.2%, uncle or aunt; 10.2%, brother or sister; 2.6%, friend; 5.1%, boyfriend or girlfriend; 7.7% other.
They are selling Children!
When people think of Latin America they think of beautiful vacation resorts, and captivating beaches, but if you stop for a moment and step out of the fantasy world that hotel resorts have created for you will witness a deep rooted history of poverty, abuse, and slavery. Travel throughout Latin America and learn the truth about the lives of children that are suffering as visitors are chillin on the beaches sipping on margaritas.
An estimated 500,000 girls younger than 16 are in prostitution in the northeast states of Argentina. Peru has over 10,000 child slaves in the city of Lima alone. According to a Brazilian Congressional Inquiry, Brazil has over 12,000,000 street children, and over 500,000 women and children in prostitution. Experts also estimate that over 35,000 women are trafficked out of Colombia. San Jose, Costa Rica receives millions of foreign visitors every year. Many foreign businessman (majority from the United States) come to Costa Rica to enjoy the freedom of legal prostitution, and the easy access to under-aged girls and boys for sexual purposes. You can go on the web and search through thousands of websites offering a travel agency type service to Costa Rica and throughout Latin America to reserve a girl for a night before you even enter the country. There are over 30,000 children involved in prostitution in Costa Rica. South America into the international prostitution market, bringing $500 million dollars in criminal profits to the traffickers. That figure represents over $14,000 per trafficked person.
Many women and children are kidnapped, purchased, and sold as products for the sex trade Industry from all over the world and trafficked into Latin America, and the United States. Central American countries are gateways into the United States and the U.S. Department of State conservatively estimates that 50,000 women and children are trafficked [illegally and against their will] into the United States annually. There is more slavery today than there has been in all of history. It just has a different face, and uses more modern methods to disguise it's sick motives. The sex trade industry is well organized, and it is estimated that it earns an income of over six billion dollars annually. Please remember the good outnumber the bad. The reason why the sex trade industry has been more successful in its efforts is because they are unified. When the good begin to unify, working hand and hand in a movement of love and hope, only then will we defeat those who attempt to rob and sell innocence.
Statistics
- An estimated 500,000 girls younger than 16 are in Prostitution in the northeast states of Argentina.
- According to a Brazilian Congressional Inquiry [1993], Brazil has over 12 million street children, and more than 500,000 children in prostitution."
- "Experts also estimate that there are 5,000 children living on the streets in one village in Colombia."
- Thousands of children are kidnapped, purchased, and sold as products for the Sex Trade Industry in Costa Rica.” It is estimated that there are over 30,000 children involved in prostitution in Costa Rica.
- “There are over 15,000 children living on the streets of Managua, Nicaragua ages 7-16 years of age.”
- There are over 6,000 children living on the streets in Guatemala City. 200,000 of the children in Guatemala are orphans.
- It is estimated that there are over 2,000,000 children living or working on the streets of Mexico City alone.
- 10,000 abandoned children die every year in Lima, Peru.
- 20,000 street children in Iquitos, Peru
- 300,000 child slaves in Haiti
- "The U.S. Department of State conservatively estimates that 50,000 women and children are trafficked [illegally and against their will] into the United States annually through gate-way countries in Central America."
Throughout Latin America and the world, millions of children are forced into prostitution. Not because they want to, but because they are modern day slaves. A lot of girls, boys, teenagers, and women are recruited by means of advertisements in the local newspapers that promise high incomes working as a tourists' guide, others are recruited by pimps who offer profits for their little bodies. The Hope Movement hears their cries, and we are dedicated to helping these children off the streets and back on the road to meaningful and productive lives. Healing the wounds of the past with the medicine of love.
The Hope Movement is passionate about breaking the cycle of poverty through our life-transforming initiatives. You can make a difference by adopting-a-program, giving a financial gift is a powerful way for you to transform lives.
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02/10/2011
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