Homeless Children—who is to Indict?

ONE night Francisco takes his wife and children to the local pizzeria. In the parking lot, an untidily dressed boy offers to guard Francisco’s car while the family have the meal. When Francisco and his family leave the restaurant, the boy excitedly thrusts out his hand to receive a few coins for his service. Late into the night on the city streets, children like him struggle to earn a living. They are not in a hurry to leave, since the street is their quarters.

HOMELESS children are looked upon as the pariah of society and have been tagged “nobody’s children” or “throwaway kids.” Their number is astounding and frightful—perhaps 45 million. An exact figure, though, is hard to come by. Unfortunately, however, all experts have the same opinion that the problem is increasing worldwide, especially in Latin America. The picture of homeless children mess in doorways or begging for money is so pitiful that society turns them into cold statistics on a casualty list, shrugs, and moves on. But society can no longer come up with the money for to do that. According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), 60 percent of the homeless between 8 and 17 years of age use hallucinatory substances, 40 percent use alcoholic beverages, 16 percent are drug addicts, and 92 percent use tobacco. And since they have no marketable skills, they often survive by begging, stealing, or prostitution. Growing up as “nobody’s children,” they are in danger of becoming outlaws, and outlaws are a threat to the security of any community.

The Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo reported concerning a gang of homeless children: “They have no family, no relatives, and no hope for the future. They live each day as if it were the last. . . . The children . . . do not lose any time: They take, in seconds, a teenager’s wristwatch, jerk off the neck chain of a woman, attack an aged man’s pocket. And they also lose no time in disappearing in the crowds. . . . Sexual intercourse starts at an early age among the . . . minors. Eleven-year-old girls and 12-year-old boys come together and then break up the romance in one or two months, with the same ease with which it started.”