John Reiss

(Introductory note. Sí a la Vida has three program phases: (1) the outreach to the kids still on the street, (2) the Managua house where street kids go during their transition toward stabilization and socialization and (3) the Ometepe island site where the kids transfer to if they are sufficiently stable to attend school and take on a measure of responsibility.)

In mid-April of this year (2001) --

I went to Nicaragua to volunteer for a month with Sí a la Vida (SALV). As an active member of Partners for Health/Amigos de Sí a la Vida, the support organization in the U.S., I wanted to actually see the program in operation and learn more about it first hand.

During the time there, I lived in a room at the 15-bed residential center on Ometepe Island and helped by supporting the staff working with the boys or by working with the crew building the new kitchen.

The residential center is a few miles outside of town (Altagracia) on a plantain farm and situated with a majestic view of a large volcano. Nestled among the palms and other towering trees and just above Lake Nicaragua, it had fresh breezes and ready access to swimming, two good ways to beat the intense heat.

I got a broad exposure to the program living and eating out there, participating in the group activities (evening meetings, weekly evaluations, and group therapy sessions), and traveling on the outings (baseball games, fishing expeditions, or beaches).

In addition, I was able to observe the dedicated educators who offered educational tutoring and also helped guide the kids with their daily tasks and chores (bathing, washing clothes, making beds, cleaning the dormitory rooms as well as cleaning the common room, latrines, laundry area and patio). All of the kids go to the public school in town and receive the tutoring and assistance of the project educators before or after classes to help overcome educational deficits owing to their not being in school while living on the streets.

What I’ve briefly described about Ometepe is really the last of the program’s three phases. Because I wanted to visit all parts of the program during my stay in Nicaragua, after about three weeks on Ometepe, I went up to Managua to see the 12-bed residential center there which serves as the base for the work with the kids living on or recently arrived from the streets, most of whom are addicted to sniffing glue.

"...the most powerful experience I had during my stay in Nicaragua
was the time I spent observing the outreach."

Although it was interesting to visit the Managua house and get a sense of the transition being made by those recently off the street, the most powerful experience I had during my stay in Nicaragua was the time I spent observing the outreach.

Hopping a bus in the early morning, I joined Rosario and Omar, one of two outreach teams, as they went out to the markets and gathering places where the street kids congregate. At the market, with the help of merchants or security staff or just from prior experience, they quickly located where the kids were hanging out.

The kids seemed to range from 8 to 16 and almost all gripped glue-filled baby food jars in their hands which they frequently placed at the corners of their mouths where they inhaled the fumes, fumes that were so strong I was beginning to get intoxicated by them.

Barefoot, dressed in tattered clothes, and with dirty hands and faces, these kids were a strong contrast to the rest of the city’s population that seemed to be quite fastidious about bathing and dress. Involved in this ritualized addictive behavior, the kids apparently achieve some sense of well being and suppress their hunger pains.

Because they often don’t have shoes, get in fights and are victimized, the kids frequently have cuts, sores and infections. Rosario and Omar carry a first aid kit with them. By offering to clean, sterilize, and bandage the common minor wounds, the outreach staff is able to engage the kids in a conversation about their struggles living homeless on the street.

Over weeks and months, as they develop a friendship with the kids and gain their confidence, the outreach team will introduce the program, explain how a bed, meals, clothes and bathing facilities are all part of the package, and, finally, offer to take anyone interested for a visit to the Managua house. This is no easy sell and the life of the street can be very appealing to someone who was abused or abandoned. But at times, the filth, fighting and famine are just too intolerable so that the program’s offering has an appeal.

As we moved about during the day from one market to another, I got an eye-opening glimpse into the rigors of the street life. I saw young girls and boys who were working as prostitutes and kids living in dirt lots where they had "houses" made of cardboard. I saw one girl who had mutilated herself in a drug-induced fury and another kid with shaking limbs and stuttering speech probably the result of irreversible drug damage to the nerves.

The day also offered me a vivid snapshot of the outreach done by the program. The staff not only worked with potential program participants but they also assisted those not appropriate for the program with information and referrals to other programs and resources.

During the course of our travels, three boys stood out in my memory.

One, still sniffing glue, approached us and asked to write a note to another staff member thanking him for his help with an acute medical problem. Another was a kid no longer using glue who was about to graduate from school and who had turned his life around with help from the outreach staff. The third was kid that was crawling down the bus aisle when we arrived at the market, begging for money, apparently unable to walk, but who ran off the bus as he neared us at the rear exit. He was a kid who had entered the program but returned to the streets.

The day on the street with the staff tied together the experience at the Managua house and the Ometepe residential center. I was able to begin to appreciate where the kids came from, what it took to get them interested in the program, and what was required to keep them engaged in the rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration offered at the residential sites.

My month in Nicaragua left me with tremendous appreciation --

for the challenges faced by the staff as well as the kids and respect for the program teachers, psychologists, peer counselors and coordinators who have been responsible for the program’s accomplishments in encouraging the kids to the leave the world of the streets and begin a healthier life.

(Closing note. More than 1000 kids have been reached out to on the street and about 300 kids helped by the project since it began in 1994. Many have entered the residential centers and have successfully graduated and either returned to their families, if appropriate, been transferred to another program, or have begun living independently.)

*John Riess is a Board Member and Treasurer of the Partners for Health/Amigos de Sí a la Vida support group.