Human Trafficking in [Brazil] [other countries]Street Children in [Brazil Child Prostitution in [Brazil] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children Federative The Federative
Republic of Brazil [map], a federation of 26 states, is large, occupying nearly half
of the South American continent. It is
bordered by |
|
CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in Quick Search for Missing Children
- Select Gender, Country ( A Video Playlist for Brazil - There are an increasing number of street children
videos now available that constitute a supplementary source of information
for researchers, especially for those who may not have experienced the
reality of street children. [Playlist
developed by Brian Horne of almudo.com & streetkidnews.blogsome.com] UNICEF - The
Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, common activities for children include shining
shoes, street peddling, begging, and working in restaurants, construction,
and transportation. Many children and adolescents
are employed as domestic servants, and others work as trash pickers, drug
traffickers, and prostitutes. In 2001,
11.9 percent of working children ages 5 to 15 years were
not attending school. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 ARBITRARY
AND UNLAWFUL DEPRIVATION OF LIFE - Death squads with links to law enforcement officials carried
out many killings, in some cases with police participation. The National
Human Rights Secretary stated that death squads operated in 15 states.
Credible, locally-based human rights groups reported the existence of
organized death squads linked to police forces that targeted suspected
criminals and persons considered "undesirable"--such as street children--in almost all states
and the CHILDREN – A July study by the Institute
of Applied Economic Policy (IPEA) reported that
more than 100 thousand children and adolescents were living in public
shelters. The leading causes for displaced children were: poverty (24
percent), abandonment (19 percent), domestic violence (12 percent), and drug
abuse by parents or guardians (11 percent). The IPEA
report also revealed that in more than half of the cases, children were
living in shelters due to the parent's belief that the child would receive
better care there than at home. In September the NGO Travessia reported that approximately 350 children lived
on The city of Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2004 [64] The Committee expresses its
grave concern at the significant number of street children and the
vulnerability of these children to extrajudicial killings, various forms of
violence, including torture, sexual abuse and exploitation, and at the lack
of a systematic and comprehensive strategy to address the situation and
protect these children, and the very poor registration of missing children by
the police. Human
Rights Watch - Street Children While street children receive
national and international public attention, that attention has been focused
largely on the social, economic and health problems of the children --
poverty, lack of education, AIDS, prostitution, and substance abuse. With the
exception of the massive killings of street children in Brazil and Colombia,
often by police, which Human Rights Watch reported in 1994, very little
attention has been paid to the constant police violence and abuse from which
many children suffer. This often neglected side of street children's lives
has been a focus of Human Rights Watch's research and action In several countries where we have
worked, notably Brazil, Bulgaria, and Sudan, the racial, ethnic, or religious
identification of street children plays a significant role in their
treatment. The disturbing notion of "social-cleansing" is applied
to street children even when they are not distinguished as members of a
particular racial, ethnic, or religious group. Branded as
"anti-social," or demonstrating "anti-social behavior,"
street children are viewed with suspicion and fear by many who would simply
like to see street children disappear. Brutal end
for woman who devoted life to helping children from Rio's violent slums Appalled by reports of death
squads exterminating street children in the beachside city, she set her
sights on the favelas of Rio. Yet this week, after
nearly a decade dedicated to the children of South America, she met the most
ghoulish end imaginable - hacked to death with kitchen knives at her
Copacabana home alongside her husband and another colleague, apparently by
one of the street children she had tried to save. Global peace
a growing priority among diverse Christian groups According to Bostian,
U.S. director of Hope Unlimited, only 18 percent of Brazil’s street children
are biological orphans. The vast majority are children who have run away from
home to escape violent or neglectful parents.
Once the runaways hit the streets, however, they find that option
isn’t much safer -- in fact, for many it is brutal and deadly. The average
lifespan for a Brazilian street child is less than four years, with most
meeting a violent end. In 2006, the United Nations reported that 16 children
are reported murdered every day in Brazil. Many more murders go unreported. NBC Nightly News to feature American Baptist ministry “The situation with street kids in Brazil
has not gotten a lot of attention,” Bostian said.
“Only 18 percent of these kids are biological orphans. The rest are social
orphans. They think they would be better off on their own away from their
home. Most die from violence in the streets.” Many of the children suffer from
poor health and malnutrition. Because of rape and forced child prostitution,
they are often exposed to HIV/AIDS. According to the Brazilian Center for
Children and Adolescents, Brazil has more than 800,000 child prostitutes.
Drugs also run rampant among the children, who sniff glue to escape reality. The problem with street children
became so bad in the late 1980s that Brazil had “large-scale, deliberate,
systematic killing of street children by death squads who enjoyed a high
degree of impunity for their actions,” according to the Hope Unlimited
website. “Street execution" was once listed by Amnesty International as
the third leading cause of death for Brazilian children. T-shirt
message suitable for framing After a few minutes of
conversation, he brought me to the bus shelter he and several other street
children called home. They were very anxious that others might discover their
hideout. They said the police might beat them, or worse. At night, they
covered themselves with cardboard and newspapers to stay warm. The children told me stories of
how they had ended up on the streets. Some had been sent away when their
families' food supplies ran out. Others had fled homes where they were
physically or sexually abused. Each one had a unique, heart-wrenching story. Most of these children had only a
pair of shorts and a T-shirt. They were penniless and malnourished. All were
barefoot. Most didn't even know their own ages, but several must have been as
young as 8. Violence and hunger were an everyday part of their lives. Brazilian
activist says more money needed to help street children Yvonne Bezerra
de Mello was changed by witnessing the police massacre of eight street children
in 1993. That’s when she started alternative schools to help educate children
who have been traumatized by life under control of drug lords that rule Rio. 'Zero Tolerance'
comes to Brazil His stepmother beat him, so Aluizio Pereira fled for the streets. Three years later, the scrawny 13-year-old
still sleeps on the sidewalk along Ipanema Beach,
begging for handouts in the shadows of the luxury hotels that dominate the
upscale neighborhood. But to some, Aluizio
is more than just a reminder of a grim social reality. In this divided city,
he represents a threat to public security and - thanks to former New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani - the police are working to clear him,
and others like him, off the streets. Home Street Home - Street Children In Brazil [PDF] [page 189] The largest category consists of children living in absolute poverty. These children grow up in an extremely underprivileged social environment. They lack the most elemental means to meet basic needs and usually receive hardly any or no parental care, because their mothers (who are often the only parent) are forced to seek some means of subsistence. In the absence of day-care facilities, the children, even toddlers, are left on their own. This exposes them to a high risk of starting an early “career” on the street. Brazil: Tragedy Of
Street Children Abused, confused, lonely and
abandoned, children take to the streets to find a safe refuge from abuse by
parents or stepparents. In a life without hope from the moment they are born,
they soon find that they have nowhere to go, no one to turn to and no life to
live. An estimated 8-10 million children
make their living on the streets in “Real Dungeons” - Juvenile Detention in the State of Rio de Janeiro [PDF] [page 24]
Beatings by Guards - We heard reports of physical abuse by guards in all
detention centers we visited. “The guards are very violent,” said a volunteer
with a nongovernmental organization that works with detained youths. The accounts of youths themselves
were not the only indication we had of abuse. In some cases, the youths we
interviewed showed us cuts and bruises that were consistent with their
descriptions of beatings. And when Human Rights Watch talked to a group of
parents of detained children, they described seeing visible signs of abuse
while visiting their children. For example, one parent spoke of a visit to
Santo Expedito in May 2003: … The guards had gone in and hit everybody, beat them up. The boys were
bruised, with broken arms, broken legs, covered with blood. I saw this.
Fifteen boys called me over to look inside and see how they were. I saw them
inside a bathroom. They lifted their shirts to show me the injuries. FACTS ABOUT POVERTY - Sáo
Paulo has more people than New York City.
There are 17 million kids, ages 10-14.
Children decide to live on the street, because home life is not good,
they need to find other ways to get food, or they are orphans. Before
living in the streets, they existed in favellas,
the most impoverished of slums, dug in garbage dumps for food, and
encountered family violence because of the stress of poverty. Working With The
Street Children Of Brazil Offering an alternative social
network and activities for children to replace their existing lives on the
street or their dependence on drugs or both, while dealing with any
underlying emotional issues, and providing some hope of a brighter future. International
Service (IS) and Brazil's Street Children Grupa Ruas e Praças (GRP) was founded by a
group of street educators and now has a team of 12, including psychologists,
art educators, social workers, and people who have lived on the streets
themselves. GRP
staff visit each site where children are regularly found to gain their
confidence and subsequently to invite them to visit a safe farm owned by GRP. There, the
children benefit from comfort, peace and regular meals. If the visit goes well, the children are
invited to spend more time at the farm and to become part of a more
structured program before moving on to the next stage. At
Home in the Street: Street Children of Northeast Brazil Included in his interesting and
sometimes provocative assertions is his calculation that the number of street
children in Brazil is probably about 39,000 rather than the substantially higher
figures reported elsewhere -- 25 to 30 million (UNICEF), 2 to 3 million (Time
and The New Yorker) and 7 million, the figure most frequently used. Brazil: An Endangered
Generation “The so-called street boy is an
island surrounded by omissions on every side. All the basic public policies
have already failed to help him," says Antônio
Carlos Gomes da Costa in his book 'Brazil Urgent
Child'. This book was published over a
decade ago but not much has changed since then. Street
Children and Circulation: A Case Study in São
Paulo, Brazil These families continually break up
and regroup in order to meet minimum, short-term needs, sending a child to
live with a relative or neighbor, or seeking work wherever possible. Gregori terms this constant movement
"circulation," and says that the one constant in these children’s
lives is instability. Street children in Brazil Interview with Spiros Tzelepis, author of Street Children In Brazil [Question] Which are the causes for this phenomenon? What happens with the families of these children? [Answer] There are multiple causes for this phenomenon. The severe level of unemployment, the neo-liberal government policies, the domestic violence, the high levels of illiteracy of population, poverty are among them. These families generally are misadjusted, with social and psychiatric problems, such as alcoholism, violence and other mental disturbances. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Brazil] [other countries]Street Children in [Brazil Child Prostitution in [Brazil] [other countries]