EVERYONE A CHANGEMAKER / Discuss

carf    says:

CARF has for many years concentrated rescue work for street children and at-risk community children through its so-called Street Migration Prevention Programme, where prevention has proved far more effective than cure.

A few months ago, during our registering of children from the close-by favela (shanty), Morro de Macaco (Monkey’s Mound), we discovered the tragic story of former street girl, 37-year old Marcia Aparecida dos Santos, mother of eight children; one deceased and only two still left in her custody; 4 and 5-year old, Fabrício and Guilherme (pictured below).



Marcia is an alcoholic and has abused drugs for the last decade, a situation which resulted in her inability to care for all her children, who now live with different fathers and step-mothers. Once married to an alcoholic, Marcia remembers how she would feverishly hunt down and break the bottles of booze hidden by her husband, in her attempts to rid their home of the poison that, although had destroyed her own childhood, in the end got a hold on her and turned her life into a worse hell than before.

Being herself the daughter of an alcoholic single mother, whose tragic life ended at the age of 33, Marcia was left with many traumatic memories at the tender age of 9, and still recalls as if yesterday, the day her mother died in her arms after a total collapse of her internal organs caused from heavy alcohol abuse. That was after years of suffering in the hands of her mother’s many alcoholic friends and partners, who constantly took advantage of the little girl during their inebriate orgies in her home, whilst her drunken mother was totally incapable of protecting her. Marcia says she can hardly remember the day she lost her virginity because she never really understood what was going on. After her mother’s death she would be handed over to an aunt who would beat her all the time, which in the end caused her to flea to the streets where she would spend the next five years of her life as a street girl. At the age of 14 she was picked up by the man who gave her a first child at the age of 15 and caused her to live through the same nightmare that she had done during most of her childhood.

These terrible traumas would eventually lead Marcia to become a slave of the very poison she had for so many years fought to destroy. Before our intervention she was already well on the way to destroying what little she herself judges to be the only things worth living for; 4 and 5-year old Fabrício and Guilherme, the only two sons still in her custody, who if our actions don’t succeed, will be removed from her home and taken into custody by the state, only to be placed in one of the already over-filled children’s homes in Brazil, ...that is if they don’t hit the streets first.



Marcia, who was made homeless after her final break-up with the boys’ father, had to once again spend more time living on the streets with her two small sons on the Praça da Sé, in the centre of São Paulo, when she was later rescued by a “friend” who fixed her up with a shack in the shanty of Morro de Macaco (image below), where CARF is now involved with their outreach programme for at-risk kids in that community.



Our intervention in this case, is aimed at preventing Marcia’s two children from hitting the streets, prevention being better than cure. But at the same time attempting to cure the mother by breaking the cycle of alcoholism she has become a victim of.

Immediately after this case was brought to our attention, an urgent action plan was drawn up to effect preventive measures, relieving the children of the pressures and insecurities they were experiencing in bringing most of their day with an unpredictable, alcoholic mother. Due to them being under school age, we had little to offer such young children at our Hummingbird Arts and Cultural Activity Centre on a daily basis, where the general age group ranges from 7 – 21 years, attending only a limited number of under-sevens in our Capoeira academy.

Taking into consideration the above, the ideal solution for them was undoubtedly a full-time, pre-school, which could fulfill the children’s immediate needs for a more structured daily routine and more positive stimuli in their lives, also one that would at the same time put certain demands on the mother during the process of restructuring her life, which we had also decided to proceed with.
Now pre-school vacancies in public Kindergartens in our region are almost impossible due to the long waiting lists of needy mothers. Our only chance was to pay for a place in a local, private Kindergarten, not a great expense, but one that only the better-off families in our neighbourhood can afford. But within a couple of days, uniforms, shoes and schoolbags were purchased and the boys were safe and sound during eight hours each day, five days a week, with regular meals and structured educational and recreational activities. On Saturdays they spend most of their time at Hummingbird doing Arts and Capoeira.



This move has already resulted in enormous changes to their lives during these last three months, changes that have since proven invaluable to their internal harmony and development.

Their frequenting a full-time, pre-school facility obviously puts pressures on the mother to follow a set plan regarding the routines connected to her children’s education. Marcia now has a daily obligation to deliver and pick-up her kids at a given time in the morning and afternoon, and must also make sure that they are clean and properly dressed for school. This in turn has forced her to better organize her use of time along with other obligations in connection with a local council rehabilitation programme for adult alcoholics, which she attends somewhat irregular. Nevertheless, she has diminished her abuse of alcohol by almost 60%, which is pretty good progress and has helped considerably to stabilize the living situation with her children. But we certainly have a long way to go and I do hope that members of this group will be able to offer their helping hands along the way.



As this was an urgent situation we devised an immediate action plan without having the necessary extra funding to implement it. Due to the well-being of two highly at-risk kids, we decided to just go ahead and resolve the question of funding afterwards. So I think this is an ideal beginner solution to ask our group for support. In time, I’m sure we will need to find solutions to other problems arising from this same case, such as better housing and work opportunities for the mother. Our main aim is to prevent the removal of these children from their home and provide a secure social environment with a fully functional, non-alcoholic mother.

Can you help us?

The following Funding Plan lists our actual expenses today, which I hope you will all make an effort to contribute towards:

Each month in Kindergarten for both children costs: USD$140,00 = = USD$1.680,00
2 sets of School Uniforms and shoes for both costs: USD$150,00 = = USD$ 150,00
2 sets of Capoeira Uniforms for both children costs: USD$50,00 = = = USD$ 50,00
Monthly transport to and from school costs: USD$40,00 = = = = = = = = USD$ 480,00
Nutritional Support for better health costs: USD$20,00 = = = = = = = = = USD$ 240,00
Medical and dentist treatment costs: USD$35,00 = = = = = = = = = = = = USD$ 420,00
TOTAL ANNUAL COST:...........................................................................= = = USD$3.020,00
TOTAL MONTHLY COST:........................................................................= = = USD$ 250,00

To cover these monthly expenses only requires 25 members of this group to contribute with just $10 each month and we will have resolved the financing of this solution. If 300 members contribute with a one-time $10 contribution we will have covered our current annual costs for this case.

CARF has practical online facilities for making PayPal contributions from its Blogs and websites but we have also created a campaign webpage especially for this group. Please use it when contributing towards this case.



Members will be informed on this thread about funding progress by the updated progress thermometer below:

. . . . . . . .

Please feel free to use this thread for any questions or suggestions you may have regarding this case.
Originally posted at 8:50PM, 2 December 2006 PDT (permalink)
carf edited this topic 59 months ago.