One, out of the many, dangers of street life is the lack of trust that children develop in people. These children are the targets of criminals and in many cases have experienced crime-related trauma. As a result and often as a way of defending themselves, they refuse to trust. Instead, they often turn to sniffing glue to numb their pain.
Our teams have specialist outreach officers that go out into areas known to be frequented by gangs of street children. There they talk to the children, spending time with them in an effort to discover what they need to improve their lives. Sometimes the help they need might be as simple as receiving some bread. However, the officer is ultimately trying to rebuild trust in the children in order for them to have hope and aspire to regain a place for themselves in society.
More often that not, the children are unable to trust enough to leave their gang or criminal leader and will in a show of bravado turn away our outreach officer, sometimes with threats even. However, the teams know that through persistence comes success and will keep trying till every child that wants to will improve their life for the better.