By Ariel Presbitero

Can you believe it? There are hundred million children living on the streets of the world – a hundred million abandoned children. Brazil is now notorious for its street children – No wonder Ariel Presbitero, Filipino lay missionary, is concerned.

Nothing to Dream For

What has a child to dream for when life is so bleak because of social injustice and there is no hope for the future? I often asked myself this question: How can these abandoned children in the future will stay in this misery, or maybe worse, pass it on to the next generation?

Los Excluidus

That is why the Brazilian Church is now focusing on the ‘excluidos’ – those on the margin of life: first the street children, but also aids patients, alcoholics, disabled, drug addicts, migrant, prostitutes, and old people. In the city streets you can see an immense number of children begging for food, asking for money, seeking security and dreaming of a better life for themselves and their own families, survival. They have to sell cigarettes, candles, letter envelops, ribbons, flower, or just “placards” on the side streets advertising services like photocopying, and selling and buying of jewelry. When these fail many sell the bodies! What else is left?

Child Prostitutes

According to the statistics of National Bishops’ Conference of Brazil, there are about 500 thousands street kids prostituting themselves all Brazil. In every 1000 Brazilian, 83 die before the age of 5 because of hunger or endemic sickness. About 45 million children and adolescents lice in sub-human conditions, 25 million live in high risk situation, 15 million suffer from chronic malnutrition, 10 million are obliged to work, and 7 million have physical and mental deficiencies.

Street Culture

Most of these children come from the “Favelas” (Slum Areas) from the broken families, now they have developed a ‘street culture’ of their own. Some of them work during the day and study at night. The children don’t take much interest in school, especially at primary level; the government is occasionally providing merienda of bread, porridge or biscuits for the kids. In most cases kids are coming to school just because they receive a merienda, because in their own houses they have nothing. Much worse is the mixture of kids from different ages joined together in one classroom. For example, a late schooler 16 year old, who is only in grade 4, mixed with kids 9 to 10 years old, and this is really not helping him, because no matter hoe hard he tries to concentrate on his studies, the younger kids are very playful and always catch the attention of the teacher. The system has its own weakness in handling children not of the same age level, so making the learning process much slower and more difficult.

Family Falling Apart

In school or in the streets, kids are always struggling to survive. The family, which is the basic social institution, is falling apart. Divorce is legal, separation is prevalent and living together outside of marriage is just normal, because one cannot have the assurance of a long and lasting marriage. How do children bear this kind of life? Kids are growing up as id separation and divorce is absolutely normal.

Negative Soap Operas

Even the television, which is the children adore because of the images and interesting things they see beyond their own familiar environment, is promoting a false formation for life. The soap operas, which are very popular everywhere in Brazil, give a picture of family life which is almost the direct opposite of gospel values. Actors and actresses play roles of separated couples; they fight violently; women are used as sex objects, and the discrimination against black people is promoted.

Church Alarmed

The children believe that all these things shown in TV are absolutely true. The church in Brazil is alarmed by the power of the TV phenomenon, and worries how to reform the existing programs while accepting the TV also be very helpful in information and formation.
The Church now faces an enormous task: to restore lost family values to save the children from the streets, to be the voice of these voiceless ones, to undo the slave history of the past, to become the Church of the poor and so inaugurate the Kingdom of God.