Si a la Vida began in February of l994 as a project of transition with the goal of rescuing street children, most of them glue-sniffers, providing them an intensive process of rehabilitation (three to six months), and returning them to their families.

From our experiences during the first years of our work with street children we have learned that: the process of rehabilitation and re-education is in reality longer, averaging two years or more; -half the youngsters have no realistic hope of successful re-integration with their families; -there are very few adoptive homes ready to receive this type of child; and long-term institutions for orphans and abandoned children have little interest or preparation for work with ex-glue-sniffers from the street, and do not accept older youngsters, like those who have been through our process of re-education.

We have also learned from experience the difficulties in working with a single group of youngsters that combines different ages and different levels of re-education and rehabilitation. Although older and more stable ones can often play an important role in rehabilitating others, their interests and needs are different, and in daily life they do not mix well with the younger, more recent arrivals from the street.

For more than a year the number of kids needing help has surpassed the capacity of our center house, Casa Nuevo Amanecer, with the result that we often have more resident youngsters than can be comfortably managed, and we must refuse care to many who need it.

During our four years of work, we have built a strong and dedicated staff with experience and training. We have developed a highly successful methodology with street children, based on building consciousness and understanding, that has served us well in helping to change them to useful members of society.

In reply to this situation, our board of directors of Si a la Vida in December of l997 approved the following long-range Plan of Development:

THE PROPOSAL IN BRIEF: OBJECTIVES AND STEPS

With the purposes of being able to serve more street children, and to give more specialized attention appropriate to their ages and maturity, the level of their psycho-emotional stability and re-educational progress, we propose the establishment of different locations in order to give to the children now in the project attention in three stages:

1. Entry from the street and stabilization

2. Re-education, medium range

3. Social adaptation, for more mature rehabilitated youth 

Our original objective remains the same -- that each child be rehabilitated and re-integrated into society, if possible with his own family. The differences are: that a larger number of children may be served, that a more ample plan for re-education may be offered, and that there may be some provision, within the project, for the rehabilitated youths that cannot return to their families or enter other long-range institutions.

THE FIRST STAGE: RECEPTION AND STABILIZATION

We plan to continue in our present center, Casa Nuevo Amanecer, with a residential program to receive and stabilize children who leave the street.

We propose to work with no more than eight to ten youngsters of different ages, recently arrived from the street, for an average time of two or three months, with the goal of preparing them for re-education at the second stage, always ready to reunite them with their families if conditions permit. We will consider the possibility of including girls, if there can be a separate dormitory for them.

We will give intensive care to special psychological needs, to emotional recuperation, and to the basic rules of conduct, and above all, to detoxification from "la pega'', for those children who are new to the project. But we will offer help as well to those resident kids who have suffered a "fall", a return to the streets, and need to be re-accepted and brought back to their previous level of stability. We prefer to begin with a few children at a time in this phase, using the best possible means of treatment, and plan for larger numbers later.

In this reception facility it is possible to have one or two rehabilitated older youth working and perhaps living, especially of those now studying, training in a skill, or working in Managua, for they can help newcomers by providing the benefit of their example

We estimate that five or more full-time staff will be needed for this "entry level" stage, including Coordinator, teachers, and counselors (both night and day, as well as street workers), psychologist, social worker, and cook.

SECOND STAGE: RE-EDUCATION

We propose to create in new installations outside Managua, a process of re-education, technical training, and social adaptation in a residential program, the middle phase.

We plan to work with thirty to forty youngsters for an average of one to two years, to prepare them for re-entry into community life, and re-unite them with families if conditions permit.

Then, we imagine that some of the older youths may continue with us in the project working in promotion, or as teacher/counselors in the Center or in the street, or with other responsibilities that may appear along the way.

We can offer several options for living arrangements for these older youth, such as:

In Managua, a group home for students who are in a program of academic or technical studies, specialized training, or work experience. Such a group might also include mature youths who are working with the Project's first-stage reception center.

In the community closest to the second stage re-education center, a group home for those who have "graduated" from the above level, and are in transition, finding an independent life with social ties to the community.

For the most mature, we will help to find a home with a family as the final step toward total independence.