Casa Alianza - Latin America

Casa Alianza monitors the rights of, and cares for, approximately 9,000 street children per year, most of whom have been orphaned by civil war, abused or rejected by dysfunctional and poverty-stricken families, or otherwise traumatised by torture, sexual abuse, rape, or murder.

Key protection strategies include street outreach, crisis shelters, and transition and group homes. For example, Casa Alianza offers residential programmes to help children who are in immediate danger get off the streets. A "street team" is dispatched to find children who are suffering in various ways. In times of crisis, the team arranges and pays for medical care, and then places the child in one of its own transitional homes. An average of 7 children come into one of the residences - located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras - each week, but the turnover rate is high. Residents must give up addictive behaviours like glue-sniffing, enter an educational programme, and carry out household chores. An in-house library with books and computers, a playroom, and two rooms for arts and crafts and video viewing, are provided. Following emergency and/or longer-term care in the house, some of these children are then repatriated to their own countries. Others are supported in efforts to reunite with their families through collaboration with community agencies. To support these efforts, Casa Alianza engages in various community efforts designed to improve the condition of families and children.

In other cases, Casa Alianza encounters street children whose lives cannot be saved. It then supports the storage of their bodies in a morgue until identification can take place. A burial is then carried out in the organisation's own cemetary.

In addition to protection, Casa Alianza provides information and advocates for the rights and needs of children who are at risk. The Casa Alianza site provides detailed information about the vulnerabilities of street children. For example, one section ("They Shoot Children, Don't They?") includes links to documents that address torture and murder, illegal adoptions, child commercial sexual exploitation, and child labour. A list of street children who have been killed violently is also included on the site. "Nahamán's Story" is a narrative posted there about a 13-year-old street boy who was kicked to death by 4 assailants. The online newsletter "Last Minute News" establishes the context for Casa Alianza's advocacy efforts. These efforts have involved filing official complaints against child pornographers, for example.

Casa Alianza is in the process of developing an educational packet for use in middle schools and youth groups around the world. The purpose of this packet is to raise awareness of the plight of street children among young people.

Ninety percent of Casa Alianza's budget comes from donations (including the donation of coffins), mainly from abroad; 10% is provided as a subsidy from the government. Casa Alianza supports its efforts in part through the sale of various materials. Items available include printed reports, video tapes of BBC documentaries, motivational posters, tee-shirts, cards, pulseras (friendship bracelets), pins, bags, and brochures.

Children, Youth, Rights.

According to organisers, more than 100 million children work and live on the streets in cities throughout the world, 40 million in Latin America alone.

Casa Alianza investigators collected information on 1,248 children and young adults killed between January, 1998 and June, 2002. Of those, 725 were 18 or younger. In about 4% of all cases, evidence points to police committing the killings. Eleven percent of the killings were due to vigilante groups operating with tacit police endorsement. About 13% are attributed to gangs. The rest of the slayings were committed by unknown assailants or blamed on others, such as private guards.

Casa Alianza is the Latin American branch of the New York-based Covenant House. Founded in Guatemala in 1981, Casa Alianza expanded into Honduras and Mexico in 1986, and into Nicaragua in 1998.