Street school Escuola de Rua, Mozambique, 372 Euros

In hindsight, this street school has had some very difficult times. Since 1994 this school has been functioning quite well in the center of Maputo. It is the only elementary school for street children in which they are offered a normal education. It was running smoothly except for some problems during the cholera epidemic in 1996 and the drought in 2000.

The Centro de Encontro started up this school for street children in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, in 1994. Besides creating the school, the organization offers a football club and an AIDS information group for the children. The actual economy in Mozambique is stable, but there are rising problems with the huge gap between the rich and the poor and the continuous growth in the crime rate.

This has been a particularly difficult year for the school and the street children, as public opinion about the children has taken a turn for the worse. When the Centro de Encontro first set up it’s programs, the public was very sympathetic towards the street children and their plight. It seems that opinion is changing and the public are blaming the children for much of the change in crime rate. As a chain reaction, the children are becoming more aggressive toward the public.

Recently the government decided to take a hard line and have requested the police to crack down on the children. This is probably just a political move to outwardly show to the public that something is being done about crime. Actually this is comparable to the actions in South Africa when they put out a strong police force to control the gangs. But does anyone really believe that these poor street children have anything to do with crime wave that exists in Maputo today?

It is scandalous that in the 1990’s people were coming from other countries such as India to study how Mozambique was so successful in dealing with their street children, and now in 2008, it seems as if these children are not “in fashion” anymore and the programs have reverted back 20 years. In a recent report from the Liga Direitos Humanos (LDH) and Save the Children, it was confirmed that the situation that the street children are now in is way below standard.

We have talked to many street children and they are very angry and resentful at the NGO’s for promising so much for their future and delivering almost nothing. They feel misused and left behind and who can argue with that? Many children have fled to other countries such as Swaziland and South Africa ending up in much the same situation. There are also children in prison or older children that are forced to go into the army. The parents often leave the younger children, but without direction they just end up on the streets.

Trying to get out of this circle of life, the street children turn to street gangs run by adult criminals. These gangs have contacts with corrupt police that turn a blind eye to what is happening concerning the gangs. We are doing our best as a well known street school to identify these children and bring them under our wings, but it is getting more difficult.

The street girls are a totally different problem. The girls have no future where they have come from and without a school or work they have no choice but to go into prostitution to survive. We do have contact as of 2008 with some of these girls and can offer a day program for them. Some of them are unfortunately gone and it is difficult to trace them. As far as the government and human rights are concerned, these girls stand little chance.

We have been trying to grow our school since 2006, but the police state is always working against us. In April 2007, there were many raids against the street children and they were forced to flee their shelters. Some were even arrested. Some were sent to the army and some are in jail, but most of them are just lost. The street children started forming smaller groups to make it harder for the police to find them, but unfortunately, that made it harder for us to find them at the same time. We are finding new street children (especially boys from the ages of 8-14) and are trying to get them involved in our activities. We have taken on a wonderful teacher named Jose Armando Tembe to help us with this project.

We realize that the children do not feel safe having lessons in one open place. Therefore, we are planning to build an extra school near the armenschool in Laulane and that will make them feel safer.

We are of course providing meals for the children at the street school because if they are participating in our program, they cannot earn anything on the streets and this is a compensation for them. We are also working to try to legalize these children to alleviate their problems with the police. This is difficult because in most cases, the parents do not have legal papers and have never registered their children in the social system. Right now we have 75 students and have additional contact with 20 girls in the area. This is actually much less than we had expected and many of our students cannot be found. Most of these children are younger than we expected. We are now talking about children from the ages of 8-14 instead of the children 13-18 that we had been originally working with.

Our project urgently needs money to remain viable and help the growing number of street children in 2008. We are supported by the Belgian Embassy in Maputo to help us with school buildings and vocational training. Further, we have rented a building in the center of Maputo which is there for the children during the day inclusive a meal. It looks like there are so many street children that are materializing and we have realized that they are getting younger and younger. We desperately need materials to help these children to learn and to survive. Our major needs at this point are:
1) books
2) pens and pencils
3) notebooks
4) blackboards
5) cupboards
6) desks 
7) chairs
In addition, the rental school needs to be renovated. If we do not help these children, they have no choice but to go back crime and the gangs. We are doing our best, but we need your help.
Our project needs, above everything else, a huge cupboard to put all our materials in, as everything is now in boxes.

Costs: 6.000 meticais = 172 euros
Extra chairs: 7.000 = 200 euros
Subtotal: 372 euros

Total € 372,-- 

adopted by the general fund of Moments of Joy

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