Working with streetchildren

In September 1990 we became involved with the Centre for the Defence of the Child (CDM) in Brazil, with a view to participating in a survey into the lives of streetchildren that was being conducted by the group. The CDM is a branch of its parent organisation The Young Streetvendors' Association and takes on individual cases of streetchildren providing crisis management with social, psychological and legal support. It was decided to start a project of regularly taking a team of staff out of the building, onto the streets and into the areas where the streetchildren, were with the aim of providing a programme of support and self-esteem building, principally for the streetgirls. This project proved a success with the streetchildren and remains so following our departure from Brazil.