Carlos on the Streets of Managua

Its been a while since I wrote about any of the kids stories here on this blog.  As you can imagine, I have to be sure I am protecting their privacy, which is why I certainly can´t put any photos up here, and is also why I have been avoiding stories recently. 

But I thought it was time to share one of the stories, so that the reality faced by these kids is still a major part of this blog. 

Carlos is almost a bit of a celebrity here at Casa Alianza Nicaragua, as, in the 9 months I have been working here, he has arrived about 8 times, and each time he has managed to stay for a maximum of about 2 days, before leaving us to head back to the streets.

Carlos is 12 years old.  He lives all over Managua, in various locations across the city, always on the streets.  He can often be seen walking around in baggy, dirty clothing, carrying the little jar of glue stuffed under his nose.  He has learnt a certain charm which has enabled him to get by, picking up some dance moves and basic English to entertain people coming out of discos, or foreigners in the main touristy locations.  

He is a good kid, and despite his life on the streets, whenever he comes to Casa Alianza he is usually well behaved and fun to be around.  But, as I have explored in some of my previous entries, the addiction to glue is an immensely strong one, and it is his need to get back on the drugs that has always prevented Carlos from staying with us for longer periods of time and really receiving the support he needs. 

On Monday morning, as I got on my bus on my way to work, and to my surprise, I saw Carlos get on the bus at my same stop.  He was on his way to Casa Alianza, he had decided it was time to give it another go.  He arrived in bear feet, a pair of shorts,  a long baggy t-shirt, all filthy, uncut nails, and a full head of dirty hair covered in head lice.

Now, Wednesday afternoon, and Carlos is still with us.  We have provided him with clothing and shoes, a tooth brush, and treated his hair for head-lice.  He also been participating in a number of activities, and he was able to impress everyone using his dance skills in this morning's Caopiera class, a new activity we are currently trying out with the kids.

Dealing with a kid like Carlos is tough.  We want to help him and give him the support he needs.  So far, we have not succeeded in getting into the level we need.  Carlos is well awayre of the benefits of being with us, but addictions are incredibly powerful.  All of us are really hoping that this time he will stick around.  We are of course doing what we can to provide activities and sustainable options, so that Carlos will no longer see the street as one of his options.  It might be that once again we are not successful, but whatever happens we will keep trying.  We can only provide support in so far as a kid allows us to support them, and we hope that this time Carlos will stay and allow us to help him. 

That Friday Feeling...Casa Alianza Style

Friday is one of my favourite days at Casa Alianza Nicaragua.  There`s the obvious factor that it means the end of the week, and a bit of a rest after another intense week, but also because a few special things that happen at Casa Alianza on a Friday afternoon.

To set the scene, its time to introduce on this blog the work of the Casa Alianza Nicaragua, Family Reintegration Team.  It is our intention that every kid living at our residential centers, will ultimately be reintegrated in a healthy and sustainable fashion, with members of their family, or, if this is not possible, in a safe and sustainable environment. 

The Family Reintegration Team starts a process for every child and teenager in our protection centers, so that their reinsertion into society, in a way which does not involve falling back into former behavior patterns, is possible and easy to reach.  The Team organizes weekend visits for the kids that we are able to send out of our residential center, and ensures monitoring and feedback of these visits.

The Team also works with the families of the children in question.  As you can imagine, the problems which force a child onto the street or into very high risk situation often come from within the family itself.  As such, the team conducts regular workshops, visits and training opportunities for family members, in order to try and tackle some of the root causes behind the problems facing the child. 

This aspect of the work of Casa Alianza Nicaragua is vital, in order to ensure we are tackling and trying to provide solutions to as many aspects of the problems as possible.

So anyway, back to Friday.  On a Friday afternoon, the families in question come to visit the kids at our residential centers, and then the kids who are able to leave for the weekend, head off with them.  I always love to have the opportunity to speak to family members, and every now and again, it is possible to see a kid laughing and sharing some food with members of their family, all sitting round and sharing stories.  When this does happen on Friday, it really is a wonderful thing to be part of us.

Of course, it isn`t always a good time for all the kids.  There are often plenty of kids who are left feeling neglected and disappointed when their family has not been able to come to visit them. There are many parents who face the same substance addiction problems as their kids, and this explains their erratic behavior and sometimes inability to come and visit.  Other parents come from such poverty, that even though we cover their transport costs, it is too much for them to leave whatever subsistence work they are doing, to visit their kids.  In these cases, we have to work hard with the kids, to help take away this renewed feeling of neglect.  But for the one`s who are able to spend a bit of time with their family, and start the process for something that we might consider a `normal` and healthy family life, it really is a wonderful thing to be part of. 

So this Friday, I spent the morning coordinating a whole series of team activities, games and exercises requiring them to think, as a team ways to improve and plans to keep moving forward.  I then spent a large part of the afternoon speaking to some of the families, and sharing my insight into the necessary steps to help provide their kids with the values they need.

It was a very good Friday, and as I left in the evening, just before the daily storm rolled in, it was defiantly a great Friday feeling, and the Casa Alianza style makes it that much better. 

Love, Respect and Discipline....The Battle of the Colours

Discipline is a major issue when working with kids who come from such traumatic backgrounds as the one´s from the streets of Managua, or abuse and violence.

At the best of times, teenagers are not known to be the best behaved group of people in the world, but for kids who have lived on the streets, been abused and exploited, consumed large quantities of drugs, naturally their behaviors can be far more erratic. 

As members of staff at Casa Alianza we have to provide the genuine and healthy love and respect that these children need, but we also have to help install them with the values of discipline, so that they can to adapt properly to the normal rules of society around them.

It is no easy task, it requires a lot of patience and tolerance, and also innovative thinking, to be able to explain concepts of discipline of the kids, in a way which they can understand and aim to achieve. 

For the past three months I have been preparing a project in order to try and help with this process, and we have now been carrying it out for the past two weeks.  It is a simple concept.  I have divided the approximately 80 kids currently at our main residential protection centre into 4 separate teams (blue, white, yellow and green).  Each team voted for two captains and two vice-captains to take charge of running each team.  The idea is in every aspect of their daily routine, the kids can win points for their team.  Good behavior, decent use of vocabulary, support to their house-mates, active participation in the workshops etc, all wins points for the team.    The winning team at the end of each month will receive a prize.

Thus far, the project seems to be taking us in the right direction.  The kids are motivated and are starting to improve their discipline and values of cooperation in order to work together for the benefit of their team.  Members of staff have also become a bit less stressed as the kids are now helping us out a lot more without job, especially in terms of ensuring the discipline and correct behavior in their team. 

But the main reason I wanted to share this entry is because the project really is very, very simple, and it is working.  Yes, it is of course difficult working with kids with the behavioral problems as the one´s we work with, but at the same time, with the right commitment, finding sustainable solutions is not too difficult.  What I am also learning is that it is very possible to provide the love and respect that these kids so desperately need, but at the same time be a strict figure representing the discipline these kids needs.  The reason I like this project so much is that the kids get to work out for themselves the need to improve their own discipline.  Every morning I publish the list of the total scores for each team, they can see for themselves how their behavior is affecting the progress of their team, and that in itself provides a considerable sense of award or consequence.  It allows us to keep working with these kids in the most positive way possible. 

Love, respect and discipline.  It sounds difficult to achieve all of these things at the same time when dealing with troubled adolescents.  With patience, commitment and understanding, it is, in fact, really rather easy.