Children baking cookies at the social center São Paulo-Poá, Brazil.…
Baking with your mum in the kitchen is one of the nicer parts of being a kid, but not all children are as fortunate to have this time. For some children there is no kitchen or stable home because their parents are not around. For these children there is sometimes no choice other than to sleep on the street. I found out in this interview how such children are helped back into a life where they can enjoy simple pleasures like learning to bake. This is report is from Claudia Mödlagl, who is a psychologist for SOS Children’s Villages Brazil.
- Lisa
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Children baking cookies at the social center São Paulo-Poá, Brazil.
Baking with your mum in the kitchen is one of the nicer parts of being a kid, but not all children are as fortunate to have this time. For some children there is no kitchen or stable home because their parents are not around. For these children there is sometimes no choice other than to sleep on the street. I found out in this interview how such children are helped back into a life where they can enjoy simple pleasures like learning to bake. This is report is from Claudia Mödlagl, who is a psychologist for SOS Children’s Villages Brazil.
“Children who live on the streets tend to live in the public places of cities because there is nothing for them to 'gain' anywhere else.
The children spend their days finding food or money to buy drugs or food. Often, drugs are cheaper than food.
In a way, drugs can 'help' the children to ease their hunger and also to forget their experiences of violence and abuse.
Even six-year olds sniff shoemaker’s glue and solvents, drink alcohol and smoke marihuana or crack. They beg, steal and sell their bodies to ensure their survival.
If the children want to survive on the streets, they have to learn to be independent.
They decide on their daily routine themselves and nobody tells them what to do or what not to do. If they manage to get off the streets, they find it difficult to give up this sense of independence.
It is hard to get used to a “normal” daily life, to go to school, to eat good meals and to go to bed so they aren’t too tired for school.
The children often find it hard to concentrate. But these are all things SOS Children’s Villages helps children to achieve, with the help of talking and caring, we get there.”
- Mary
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A little girl wearing pink clothes, with a pink umbrella in Children's Village Valmiera, Latvia.
Elsewhere in the Islice Village live the twins Dima and Misha. They talk here about how having the internet in the village has changed the way they learn and for their DJ hobby.
"Before the Internet we watched films and played computer games, but there is now a constant queue of people waiting for the computer," tells Misha.
Dima says “the Internet is helpful when it comes to my studies, to find material for school work for example”. They use it to find information about music as well. "We are DJs so we need this kind of information - what is hot in music and what's not," Misha tells us.
The twin brothers, who go under the names of DJ Flame and DJ Pivot, entertain local people at clubs and schools a few times a month. "We tried to make music ourselves, but we were not happy with what we produced, so we deleted it all."
The brothers have built themselves their own computer to play games on. "We took parts from old computers, exchanged or bought them and built a new computer" says Misha.
Dima is keen to explain how "studying is more important than the computer so the rule is that we don't go anywhere near the computer until we have done our homework."
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