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As
stated in different chapters of this document, the YMCA of Bogotá
has deeply investicated the problems of street children carrying
out the following research:
- Street
children features and their families, 1985
- Family
conditions related to the child moving to the streets 1987
- Assessment
of the program "Operation Gamin" ( Street child operation),
1988
- Development
of a preventive work model for extreme underprivileged families,
whose children have got experience in living on the street or
are in high risk of abandoning their homes. 1990
- A
descriptive study of the children enrolled to the Reception Centre
for street children 1999
The
purpose of this last study was to formulate ways of action and intervention
making emphasis on prevention as smoothing and/or minimization strategies
on the impacts associated with street inhabitants.
As
a result of the conclusions of the research and after deeply analyzing
the variable regarding the length of stay on the street, it was
determined that the more a child remains on the street the more
he becomes dependation on it. The activities, experiences, achievements
and frustrations, affection and freedom will designate the levels
of necessity. It is noteworthy to see how the streets become a space
of life where rules barely exist but there are still surviving possibilities.
The
analysis also showed that 32% of the population has been on the
streets for less than a month, which let us infer they were in high
risk of initiating on the streets. However they had significant
attention possibilities due to the ties and proximity they have
with their families and community.
Thus,
in 1999 the YMCA Colombia accepted the challenge of designing a
project to assist children and youth in street stage I. There was
the belief /hypothesis that possibilities of positive changes were
greater if work was done with children before they break their ties
with relatives and communities.
The
following objectives were put forward:
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