When kids come to Casa Alianza, they need to follow certain rules. First and foremost, they can't use drugs, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or have sexual relations with other members of the residential center.
For teenagers coming from a background where an excess of all of the above things was the norm, this can prove especially tough. It is bad enough to think the sort of life a 14 year old has lived whereby drug addiction and promiscuous sexual behaviour was regular (especially when thinking of the numerous health concerns this arises), but then imagining the pain a young person must go through when trying to get away from these addictions.
At Casa Alianza the door is always open, and the kids that come can leave at anytime. But if they leave through the front door, then they have to receive the signed support of their Support Officer, and they have to follow a monitoring procedure and come back to particiapte in various activities every so often.
For some kids however, it is just to much, and, under the pain of trying to rid themselves of all their various addictions, they choose the quickest and simplest way out, and climb over the wall.
Danilo (once again not his real name) had been at Casa Alianza for about 2 weeks. He is 14 years old, although his aged face told a different story. I had been monitoring him closely, as he was clearly finding it extremely difficult to try and live a normal life away from the drugs. He was usually either extremely restless, or collapsed in a heap somewhere around the building. He was often withdrawn and shy, although equally often agressive and moody.
On Monday I was outside playing baseball with some of the kids (for my friends from the UK, I still think baseball is a terrible sport), and I saw the withered figure of Danilo carrying nothing more than a small and broken rucksack clamber down from the Casa Alianza wall and make his way on the street.
The streets of Managua are some of the unsafest in the world. Seeing this troubled kid give up on his recovery process and decide to take up life again on these same streets was really very very tough.
He walked off down the road heading to one of Managua's most dangerous neigbourhoods, (well one of many), I try not to think what will be facing him, and hope that maybe he will make the decision to come back.
I wanted to share this story, because in this story there is not, as yet, a happy ending, and sadly it is very much a reality. So by sharing it, I wanted to share the sad momets with this type of work, just as much as the good moments.
In the interests of fairness, I will try and have a happier story for my next update.
About Me
- Simon Walters
- My name is Simon Walters - I work for Casa Alianza Nicaragua. Casa Alianza Nicaragua is a non-profit NGO, working to protect, support and rehabilitate children living on streets, victims of abuse, violence, abandonment, commercial and sexual exploitation and human trafficking. I work as a specialist member of staff, coordinating healthy and sustainable activities for the kids in our protection, and on the international development side of things - working with all the Casa Alianza sites in Latin America. I hold a MA in International Law and Human Rights from the United Nations University for Peace, and a MA in History from the University of Edinburgh. I am very involved in the Model United Nations, and in 2009 served as the Founding Secretary General of Mostar International Model United Nations, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I also have experience in English teaching, coaching public speaking and debating, acting and radio presenting.
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