Abandoned Children in Latin American Cities Christian Ragland Akich White Jess Knecht

What is an Abandoned Child?  Abandoned children are children who have no contact with family members and resort to a dangerous homeless lifestyle.  They may get involved in crime, gangs, and have to avoid danger at all cost.  Political conditions, such as difficulty in adoption proceedings, may also contribute to child abandonment, as can the lack of institutions, such as orphanages, to take in children whom their parents cannot support. Societies with strong social structures and liberal adoption laws tend to have lower rates of child abandonment.

World Statistics of Abandoned Children  The United Nations estimate there to be 100 million street children worldwide.  Over 557,000 children under the age of 5 years die each year.  Poverty is often a root cause of child abandonment. Persons in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to abandon him/her.

Abandoned Children or “Street Children” in Latin America For over three decades Latin America has endured the unenviable distinction of having more street children per capita than any place on earth.  An estimated 40 million children live on the streets of Latin America's densely populated cities – out of an estimated total population of 500 million  More than 96,000,000 children in Latin America live in poverty.  40% of all children in Latin America do not even complete 5 years of education.

What are the causes to these high rates of child abandonment in Latin America ? When we talk about the high rates of child abandonment, we must keep in mind the various factors that go into this phenomenon. The two biggest factors that were researched were Poverty and Violence.

Poverty

 Poverty is the lack of basic human needs, such as clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. When we look at poverty, we must look at the children’s lack of a family life, education, and institutions to help them.

Poverty (Cont.) Family life - Most if not all of the abandoned children are abandoned due to the fact they are not in the custody of their parents or other relatives. This can be due to their parents being deceased, parents not being able to afford to keep them, or the overall violence of a Latin American country that might of claimed their family’s lives.

Poverty (Cont.) Lack of Education - In many countries, it is mandatory that children go to school. In many Latin American countries, most of the abandoned children are running the streets rather than attending school.  With this lack of education, these abandoned children are not getting the tools that could eventually get them out of poverty.  Also, there is no system of forcing these children to be in school instead of being on the dangerous streets.

Poverty (Cont.) Lack of Institutions - In Latin America, there is a definite lack of institutions that will help these children stay away from consequences of poverty. -Institutions that will provide a safe haven and the proper accommodations for the abandoned children so that they are not lost to violence, exploitation, and death.  There are some institutions in these countries, most noticeably the churches and orphanages, but that has not been enough.  International agencies are trying to help, but the problem is hard to fight from a external view.

Violence

When speaking about violence in reference to the abandoned children in Latin America, we are talking about the unfortunate situations these children are put in while on the streets.  With Latin America, gang violence is one of the major factors that continues the dangerous cycle of child abandonment.

Violence ( Cont.)  High death rate among street children  Street Children in gangs and victims of gangs  Girls fall victim to prostitution and sex trade  suffer physical abuse and murder at hands of gangs and police  Some but not all involved with gangs  Police agents do little to investigate murders of street children

Prostitution  40 million children estimated.  Need for food, clothes and drug abuse lead many to prostitution.  Prostitution increased with tourism.

Health Dangers  HIV and other STI’s are a major problem among street children.  660,000 women (aged 15+) living with HIV.  Malnutrition.  No healthcare available.  Drugs

Police Response  Social Cleansing  Police have participated in killings of street children  Weapons provided to land owners.  Death squads

Organ Trafficking  Rumors started in the 1980’s  Children picked up and sold to North America  Lower adoption rates.

Positive Government Responses  Brazil  Mexico  Colombia

Non-Governmental Organizations  UNICEF  UNESCO  MNMMR (National Movement of Street Children)  Casa Alianza (Covenant House)  Bruce Organization  ENDA-Bolivia

Questions  Why do you think that many governments prefer ignoring the problem or killing street kids?  Do you think if governments focused more on abandoned children, it would pose a significant blow to the parties benefiting from them?  Do you think the systems for abandoned children in the US would work if implemented in Latin American countries?