Desiree Hancock

South Jordan, Utah
Junior, Anthropology
Utah State University

"The field school gave me insight into what doing ethnographic field work is really like. For anyone studying anthropology this is a must."

El Mundo de Niños
By Desiree Hancock

“Working with children is rejuvenating for the soul and a window into the youthfulness that we all possess.”

Introduction

The ocean lifts and falls sending all of our bodies crashing down in circular motions.  Sand, kids, and froth keep flashing before my eyes at different points in time.  We all emerge from the white foam from the grasp of the wave gasping for air.  I look over at Stalin and he is grinning ear to ear.  He has a smile that can manipulate just about anything out of anyone. Juan is laughing and holding something in the air.  I look closer and see  he is clutching a faded blue and white striped article of clothing and yelling about it excitedly in Spanish.  . The crashing of waves muffled what he was yelling.  “El ropa de baño”.  His bathing suit had been taken hostage by the wave and spit out after it was done.  We all break out into bursts of pure light laughter. 

The first week I moved into Huanchaco I knew that I wanted to work with children because of my previous experience in the United States.  Through the ties that my professor established in the community, I was informed that there was a house for children who had previously been living on the street.  Finding out about the house I decided to go visit and see if there was any service that I could offer..   I walked down the dusty sand road wondering what I was going to learn by working with these boys. A sense of apprehensiveness soon hit me as I was approaching the warm yellow building bearing the name El Mundo de Niño. I knocked on the faded red door.  I could here an excitement on the other end of the door commotion, noise, as the children ran to get the door.  The smallest boy opened the door he had keys around his neck so I assume he was  kind of the care-taker of the place, the trusted one. The door was crowded with the anxious children. My apprehensiveness melted as the familiar feeling of home hit me.  At first the children just kind of looked at me trying to formulate a first impression.  When the care-taker came they cleared a path for her to greet me.  I looked at the children and smiled. I asked the kindn looking woman if I could offer any service to the home and she bustled over to the calendar. In hurried motions she looked over the schedule. She told me that they where lacking a physical education teacher and asked if I could be the teacher.  Knowing that flexibility is the magical word that all anthropologists must get to know.  I decided to take the job as a physical education teacher, laughing to myself I have had more random titles.  So I replied that I could.  She told me to show up the following day at 3:00.  From there I started volunteering as the physical education teacher every Monday through Friday at 3:00 to 5:00.

El Mundo de Niños is a half way home designed to reintegrate children back into society.  There are eight children living at the home right now. Two full time caretakers “foster parents” have been employed to live at the home with the children.  Luce and Maria are their names, but the children affectionately refer to them as tias (aunts). The children are provided with all there physical needs; clothes, food, and shelter by El Mundo de Niños. In addition to providing for physical necessities  their mental and spiritual needs are also attended to.  The home has employed  teachers, social workers, and a psychologist to help the children in the reintegration process. It is  organized and operated  by the German association.  All the finances are provided by donations received from foreign countries as well as the surrounding community. The members of the organization are responsible for all the administrative costs ensuring that the funds are exclusively  used for the kids.[1] 

Background

While living in, Trujillo I noticed an unusually large amount of boys wandering the streets looking unkempt.  Small boys shining shoes, digging through trash for food, or selling sweets from boxes laden with candy blending into the massive informal economy. I was fascinated to know where all these children where coming from and what they where doing on the streets. The first time I witnessed these boys it made an impression on me. I recorded it into my field notes.

Small children pass holding boxes full of assorted colorful candy and cigarettes.   While I sat on a wooden bar stool in an open-air café enjoying a light piece of lemon cake.   A child approached me timidly inviting me to buy one of the sweets that he possessed in his small box.   One look at the faded red shorts and unkempt hair compelled me to buy something from him. I chose a Sublime chocolate from the box and handed him a sol (peru’s currency). As soon as I purchased  the chocolate from one of the venders,the army  young salesmen targeted me and before I could even blink I was surrounded.. I felt overwhelmed at there requests. “Buy, buy, buy.” I politely denied their offers.  Their pleading eyes watched me they where holding out there boxes for me to choose something.  I tried to focus on the cake that I had been eating but I had lost my appetite. I pretended not to notice them but the uncomfortable pit in my stomach got the better of me.  I couldn’t deny the fact that what I was eating was a delicacy to them. I turned to them and motioned with my hand for them to come. tu quieren torta.(I offered them to eat cake with me)  Kati took out the lemon cake from under the glass cover and cut up pieces of cake putting it on small plates and handed it out to the eager boys.  No words where spoken as the boys hungrily savored the warm lemony flavor. After there plates where clean of any crumbs.  I asked them what there names where, where they where from, and how long they worked.  All of them piped out answers: Juan, Ceaser, and Fernando the list went on.  They informed me that they took buses in or some lived in the streets.  Working eighteen-hour days was not an abnormality to them. A million questions swarmed through my head.  Why are these children on the streets?  What propels them to work at such young ages? And what was being done to help them?

That experience fueled my interest for investigating further I decided to research why the kids where on the street and what transitions they face reintegrating back into society.  "Street children", those who work, live and sleep in the streets often lacking regular contact with their families are somewhat different than market children, who sell small items on the street to make a living.  After talking with Samuel, whose story is recounted below, I decided to narrow my focus to the study of street children because they are the ones I had access to in Huanchaco. Haunchaco lacks the economic market for children to vend forcing them to go to Trujillo where there was more business.

The number of children living on the street has risen in the last fifteen years.  Given the economic growth in the Latin American region as a whole over the last decade, it is frightening to note that 90 million children - or almost 50% of all children on the continent - live in poverty. There are 100 million street children in the world, half of which are found in Latin America.[2]

The average age for the children to move into the streets is between seven and twelve years old.  All of them are boys. Although girls are found vending alongside boys they very rarely make the street there permanent home.  Huanchaco is the perfect setting for a rehibilation center because of it is 8 km away from the main city Trujillo .  The distance provides the children enough space from their associations and addictions to make the life changes that are necessary. 

Methods

Given the short time in Haunchaco and my limited understanding in Spanish. I had to be more creative with my methods of data collection, employing several different methods from the ethnographer’s tool kit such as participant observation, formal and informal interviews and observation to answer my research question. The most effective tool that I found was participant observation.  I volunteered at El Mundo de Niños as a physical exercise teacher Monday through Friday for participant observation. For physical excercise we would play soccer on the beach and body surf in the ocean. Having this opportunity provided me with valuable insight into how the kids interacted with each other as well as authority. It also enabled me to establish relationships with the kids and the care-takers of the home. Giving me a more intimate view into how they live their lives and the challenges of reintegration. 

I found these tape-recorded interviews to be absolutely necessary because of my limited Spanish skills.  Having the conversations on tape and transcribed over into English was important to help me fully comprehend the whole conversation and not misinterpret information.  The last method that I used was to observerve the daily routine.  I felt observation  provided a window into the way people really live, how they see things, how they react to situations, and how they feel without them even knowing it.  

Discussion

“His shoulders where pulled back and his head held high.  He carried himself with a confident almost knowing attitude. I could tell that he possessed a knowledge that most children at his age lack.”

Miguel has been living in El Mundo de Niño for two years now.  He was introduced into the home when he was twelve years old.  Miguel with the amount of time he has spent in the home has made a lot of progress from his past behaviors.  Miguel grew up in a violent home.  His father, was a criminal, and a drug addict, and he beat his wife and children.   Dealing with an unstable and abusive father made his life miserable.  To make things worse, when he was a child a stranger raped him.  His father eventually ended up dying as a result of his involvement in criminal activity.  His mother was left alone with no income to support herchildren.  Miguel went to the streets as a candy salesman to provide for the family.  Even though he has lived in the home for quite some time he still feels responsible financially to provide for his family.  Because Miguel grew up in a violent and unstable home, he brought many of his street behaviors with him to the home that he has had to work through.  “With a lot of effort on both sides” Miguel has made rapid progression.  He now has a part time job in a bookstore and is attending the accelerated school program.

Samuel        

The sun warmed me to the core as Samuel and I sat contently on the beach watching the methodical sweep of the ocean picking up and slowing down. The mood was tranquil and calming for the soul.  Samuel was wearing his deep blue board shorts that I had rarely seen him without, and no shirt. Enabling me to see the tattoo  “toro”(bull) inscribed on his left arm. The tattoo sparked my interest.  I was curious what his story was and where he had come from. So I decided to ask him. I pulled out a tape recorder that I had in my bag that is always by my side and I asked him to tell me his story.   The sun beat down on his face lighting up his features and he laughed lightly at the idea of a tape recorder.  But he replied “ya” in a thoughtful way and took the tape recorder from my hands and poured his story into it.

“My name is Samuel.  Before...(living in El Mundo de NinosEl Mundo de Niños) I lived in the street.” He explained to me the dangers of living in the streets because of all the different street groups that exist “peranitas”, teratoros, drugos, choros, and monos.  He ended up on the street because  “my friends would come get me and would want to hang out we would start drinking.” After he had gone out drinking with his friends for awhile he got involved in taking drugs.  In a humble reflective tone he said  “I would take drugs and find myself alone and not know what to do. My mom would be waiting for me because she wanted to talk to meand I didn’t understand because I was all drugged up”.  He eventually made the streets his home. “I used to sleep in a corner of the street with garbage all around me and beer bottles and dirty people.” I asked him how he decided to move into El Mundo de NinosEl Mundo de Niños. He said that when he was in Haunchaco a man approached him and asked him to help with a project.  He ended up staying all day until late in the night when there wasnt any night buses going back to Trujillo. He laughed and said “the man tricked me”. Not having any place to sleep the man invited him to go to El Mundo de Nino.  Samuel said that he asked the man why. The man told him that there was a place to stay just “until the dawn comes”. He followed the man to the home.  “We went and knocked on the door and a lady came and answered the door.  And she said come in children so you can sleep. .  The dawn came and the lady said to me why don’t you stay here for awhile so that you can change child. At first I said no and then I thought a little bit that it would be better for me if I did stay.   So I took advantage of it and I stayed for eleven months and four days.” It impressed me that he knew the exact amount of time he had spent in El Mundo de NinosEl Mundo de Niños down to the day.  I could tell that El Mundo de NinosEl Mundo de Niños had impacted him greatly. He told me about the changes that he had made in his life. “Now I am a person that understands I study, I work, .......my family is happy because I have changed myself. Most of the kids in El Mundo de NinosEl Mundo de Niños are like that.  I want to thank with all my heart El Mundo de NinosEl Mundo de Niños and not just me but all of the kids.  I have changed and all the kids there have changed.  I just want to thank them very much”.  As he spoke into the tape recorder I could see the gratitude that he felt toward the home. He finished by saying. “It keeps getting better and I can help my brothers and sisters and all my family for this reason I have changed my life.”

Why the kids are on the streets

There seemed to be an underlying theme to all of the reasons why children where on the streets.  The common thread between all of them was family.  For a variety of different reasons.  1. The parents are abusive driving the child to find solace and safety in the streets.   2. The parents do drugs themselves and are unable to tend to the needs of the children.  3. Due to lack of attention or supervision in the home the kids are mothers and fathers and need to work in the streets to take care of their kids. 4. There is not enough money in the home so the “parent sends the child out to work or the child chooses to go feeling an obligation to help make ends meet in the home. 5. No love in the home driving the child to seek support and acceptance in the streets.

Blanca the acting director of the home expressed the hardships they faced dealing with the parents of the children that lived in the home.  In an exasperated voice she put it simply “in the least we dont want the parents to be obstacles for the children”.                

Dangers of living on the streets

While living on the streets, kids usually start engaging in criminal activities such as stealing or sniffing glue.  It is estimated that up to 90% of children living on the streets sniff glue. Sniffing glue becomes more than just a past time for the children it serves as a binding factor between the different street groups, and a way to forget the hardships of living on the street.   In one of the interviews I held with Blanca the acting director of El Mundo de Niños she explained the reason that glue is so widely used.  “The most common drug is huffing glue because it only costs two soles to buy the shoe glue.”  As well as being inexpensive to purchase often times glue is the only drug to which the children have access.  Due to their young age it is harder for them to obtain heavierdrugs.  Children can simply walk into a common shop and ask for shoe glue  claiming,  “They need to repair their shoes”. They then take the glue and put it into a bag and inhale.  Sniffing glue kills brain cells faster then most drugs due to the toxic chemicals the glue possesses which, slow their ability to form words and causes their speech to slur.

Another widely engaged activity in  the streets is stealing to support drug habits, or out of necessity to live.  Pirañitas, choros, monos, ratero are the street slang names for this activity. .  Pirañitas are the term for children who will steal things for drug money.  Sometimes their need to satisfy their drug addiction is so urgent they will steal things worth a few soles, basically anything they can get their hands on.. . . The children in El Mundo de Niños, having lived on the streets, would often warn me when a piranita was near.  On one occasion I brought my camera to the home to take pictures and Samuel told me to be careful on the street with my camera to not let people see it.  He said they could do one of two things steal it right then or tag me to steal it later.

On several  occasions working with the children they would act out in violent  behavior  this is an example taken from my field notes.

Sam went up behind Jose and put the dull machete to his throat mimicking slitting his throat.  I was startled by the vicious act out of such a young boy. In Sams struggle to get away from the knife held to his throat his hand was cut.  Jose rapidly and intense tones tried to explain something to me.  He bent down and drew two circles in the sand.  One was a head and the other was a stomach he explained to me.  He imitated stabbing the stomach and told me if the person you where attacking was fat you aim for the stomach.   Then he stabbed the heart and slit the throat of the crude drawing in the sand and told me proudly that is how you kill someone.[3]

The longer that the children are on the streets they usually move into heavier criminal activity.   At the age of 14, 15, or 16 children start joining pandilleros (gangs).  .  El Mundo de Niños tries to get children into the program before they reach this age.  Receiving children between the ages of seven and thirteen. Due to the heavier criminal activity  engaged in by older children no one will after the age of fourteen will be received into the home.  

Contacting the kids on the streets

The first step to  the program is contacting the kids on on the street. “Contacting the kids on the street is important because the kids choose if they want to live in the home or not so we go out and befriend the kids and persuade them to come into the homes. “ stated Blanca the acting director of El Mundo de Niño.  El Mundo de Niños is an organization that deals solely with children who have made the choice to live there and are not court ordered. This is a unique difference in El Mundo de Niños compared to other organizations.  It is set up this way to take the children that are ready for change.  Juan put it simply “Help the kids help themselves”.     

The proccess of contacting consists of going to the street corners where they sleep or the places they do drugs and befriending them. Luce, the caretaker of the children described the places that they find the children. “ They look for the kids who are doing paste cocaine.  They find them doing Tec oral (a drug) in cemeteries and everywhere.”

After they contact the children they keep in touch with them weekly. Giving them clothes, food, and organizing activities for them to attend. Blanca explained to me the importance of working weekly contacting.  “ You have to do work on the street once a week so that you don’t loose the sensitivity that you gain by working in the street and being in contact with the kids,"  By working with the children frequently they are able to determine when the children are ready to enter the home.  “When you go out to work on the street you start to notice who it is that really wants to go to,” stated Juan Carlos. 

After the children are contacted  they have to be prepared for two to four months before entering the home.  In the two to four months they help them stop addictions and change certain attitudes and behaviors that are not acceptable in the home. Juan described the process  “There are kids on the street and they take drugs….we go and converse with them telling them that they can come here (El Mundo de Niños), we will give them everything that they need.  But they have to behave themselves…. they can’t do the same things they did before.”  He also added with the support of the other children who have changed in the home the makes transition is easier.  The problem with contacting is some children don’t have a desire  to leave the street because they like the freedom that they possess there

Bringing them into the home

When the children are ready to be received in the home they have agreed upon the rules of the home, no drugs, no violence, and the upkeep of personal hygiene. The home is positioned outside of Trujillo 8 km in Haunchaco to enable the children to cut ties with influences that where keeping them on the street. The home has the capacity to hold fourteen children. The plan for the future is to expand to meet the needs of twenty children.  Right now there are eight children with varying ages living in the home. “Right now we are in the process of getting four more children,” stated Blanca.  But due to the intense process of integrating the children no more than two can be taken in one month.  Only accepting two children at a time is necessary to not thwart the process of the other children in the home.

Transitioning time in the home usually takes three months they call this period “settling phase”. There are a lot of changes that the children face within this transition.  The caretaker, Luce, explained to me what things they work with the children on. 

One day while sitting in the empty kitchen Luce expressed to me as we where watching the children run down the sidewalk yelling at each other, that they where characters and required a lot of patience to take care of the children.  And then in an affectionate tone she said “la muerte” (these children will be the death of her) and laughed.  She said that it is important not to reward bad behavior first give them love and second to correct their  behavior.  She also said it is important  to be careful to not give attention bad behavior.   I found that theory was consistent with all the workers.  Hans told me the same thing one day when one of the boys was pouting.  He said not to pay attention to the pouting because he was using it to receive attention.  He explained to me that when a child’s behavior was out of line that they needed to correct that behavior.  By telling them why the it was wrong to use those words or act in that manner Working at Boys and Girls Club an after school program for at risk kids we would use the same methology to deal with behavior problems.  When reprimanding behavior you always have to give the reason why the behavior is not acceptable.

Transition steps they face into reintegrating them into society

El Mundo de Niños is a well run and systematic organization with a set schedule for the kids that is adhered to.  The children are expected to wake up at 6:00 for breakfast, and then prepare for school or work. Before breakfast each one has an assigned chore in the house that he is required to do.  The chores are rotated throughout the week between the children.     

Conclusions

Noe leaned over and kissed my head.  I fought back the tears as I thought of leaving the children that I had grown to know and love.  My memory ran through all of the fond memories.  Baking gooey chocolate chip cookies in the home, learning dances to Brazilian music from the children, making make shift kites out of bamboo shoots, playing soccer by light at night in the concrete court, hiking through the hills barefoot, laughing as the waves picked us up and sent us tumbling in the surf. 

Working with these children enabled me to have a glimpse of what these children face.I immediately fell in love with the home and the insights that it provided me into the lives of these beautiful children.  I can't put into words what I felt or what impressions this experience held for me. But I found El Mundo de Niños to be a well-run organization. The children where bright and capable individuals. They just needed the catalyst for change that El Mundo de Niños provided them.  Also the opportunity to go to school and live a life with the comforts to which all children should be entitled. El Mundo de Niños frees the children of living with abuse and the stress of having to provide for a family. Without these stresses it enables them to  to rid themselves of past behaviors and habits, and enjoy a normal childhood. The children’s strong desires to change and apply themselves impressed me.

This paper is only a brief overview of the process of accepting children into the home and why they are on the street.  Further research could be conducted on this topic in what happens to the children after leaving the program. How they transition back into society and if the program was effective.  But, this research will have to wait for a future moment.  For now, I’ll keep the memories of these wonderful children close to my heart.