Brazil

Street Children

This case study focuses on street children who live and work on the streets of Recife.

Recife, Brazil’s fourth largest city, is located in the Northeast region of Brazil – one of the poorest regions where many people live in conditions of poverty.

Section One

What is day-to-day life like for people in Brazil living in conditions of poverty?

Poverty has many faces and to live in poverty, or to be poor, manifests itself in many different ways. Conditions of poverty differ from one country to another, and in some countries, can differ from one region to another (as is the case in Brazil). Families in the UK who can’t afford a car, or to go on a holiday, may be considered poor, whereas being poor and living in poverty in developing countries like Brazil, means not having your basic needs met and no freedom of choice.

Grupo Ruas e Pracas is a project working with vulnerable and marginalised youngsters (street children), and in some cases, their families. Day-to-day life for these people is very hard. For them, reality is:

• No income, irregular income or very low paid jobs. In many cases, young people have to work on the streets of Recife to earn money for their families.
  
• Feeling very hungry for most of the time, as they cannot afford three good meals a day (if any at all!)
  
• No, or limited access to education.
  
• No, or limited access to electricity, clean drinking water, drainage and toilets that work.
  
• Insufficient money to be seen by a doctor and get treatment for illnesses.
  
• Inadequate housing, usually one or two rooms in which to wash, cook and sleep. These houses are often shared by lots of people, and leak and flood in rainy weather.

In Recife (and other cities in Brazil), poor people have a great sense of powerlessness. They are confronted with rich lifestyles day after day – they see the adverts, the cars, the clothes, the money – and can’t do anything to alter the stark disparity between the rich and the poor. The Brazilian people who are involved with the project say that this makes them feel very angry and frustrated.

Poverty in a city like Recife is different to poverty in rural areas of Brazil – a major difference is the drugs and violence often associated with poverty in the cities.

1. Using the day to day section:

Imagine you were one of the street children living in Brazil describe how you would spend your day? How would you feel about living this way?

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J, ten years old is an orphan and has been living at the farm with his older brother for 2 years.

 

 

 

children reading  about GRP´s work