Charity4LIFE

The Army of the Street children

an article by Jeannette Pawula

For quite some time, my heart was distraught with an unsettled restlessness that could not be eased until we could expand our reach into Nicaragua.  Charity4LIFE’s preliminary steps in protecting and supporting street kids is through the research and investigation of areas in third world countries containing saturated populations of street children.  Nicaragua, I had discovered, was one of those areas and we had to go there.

Nicaragua is Central America’s largest country with an estimated population of 6 million. 40% of that population are children ages 14 years and younger.  From my five day trip conducting research, I can verify these statistics by making the following statement:  Nicaragua is a country being run by a society of children misguiding one another.   Starvation, poverty, and brutality are spreading like a plague with no curable antidote from the country’s government.

What differentiates Nicaragua from other countries where we do work is that the Nicaraguan “street child” phenomenon has only existed since the 90’s.  What is the cause of this telling statistic?  How is it that children are raising children and taking to the streets?

The answer is the brutal result of the post Sandinista Revolution.

The Sandinistas were a left wing socialist group composed of people from all sectors: workers, businessmen, peasants, students and guerillas who succeeded in overthrowing the American backed right-winged dictatorship of the Somoza family in 1979.  For more than four decades prior, the Somoza dynasty ruled through harsh totalitarianism power and contained opposition through terror methods and massive executions.  Financial gains were exploited and inequalities amongst classes were brought to light.   The political project of the Sandinista Administration was an anti-imperialist project to reform Nicaraguan society and economy of the country along somewhat socialist lines.

Just as quickly as the Sandinistas came to power, even faster grew more powerful oppositional forces.  The US in particular became increasingly anti-Sandinista due to their communist ties and allies.  When the Sandinistas began to nationalize aristocratic land and specific industries, the US placed an embargo on Nicaragua and concluded the Sandinista government was growing too controlling.  Funded by the United States CIA, an oppositional militia group known as the Contra’s waged a guerilla war in Nicaragua against the Sandinista government and the Sandinistas militarized in defense.  A war was waged that lasted from 1979 to 1990.  By 1990 the Sandinistas had lost power through free election and a politically backed president by the US, Chamorro, was elected. 

During this revolutionary period of Sandinista power the progress of the country was, without argument, astonishing.  Their administration instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality.  A political system was established that enabled children to go to school.  People were subsidized with food and even if they didn’t have a job, they were given access to basic rights through government support.  Those who lived in Nicaragua during this time all contest to the success of the Sandinista reforms.  Due to the high militarization during this eleven year span of war there was not one child who could be found on the street.  And those who lived there can testify that there were no drugs.  It was a very healthy country.   

When the war ended in 1990, one million armed men were discharged from the army.  There was no protection and no compensation for soldiers’ services during the war.  The situation escalated due to lack of programs of prevention and rehabilitation from the government.  As the Sandinistas vanished, so did government support.  Thousands of men were suffering from war psychosis and drama which led to alcohol and drug abuse.  Roughly 70% of the population was left jobless.  As a result, kids of the officers who were discharged were sent to the streets to support their families.  They resorted to stealing and peddling to try to earn an income.  There was an army of more than 300,000 children on the street after the war.   There wasn’t a corner where you could not find a child living on the street.  The army that had dissipated at the end of the revolution was replaced by a new army, the army of the street children.

Today, street children have nearly doubled in size and strength.  He sleeps under a chair or table, lays out cardboard on the ground and covers himself in a sack at night… She walks around during the day selling her body to passing truck drivers… He steals and goes days without food… She is pregnant at the age of 14 with her second child… and his only possession is a pocket knife which has been used to strike against the flesh of another.  This is a comparable story common to street children anywhere in the world but then I add one more observation… he has a small baby food jar of glue he takes a sniff from… and this observation alone distinguishes itself from other child infested streets around the world.

The glue-sniffing street child is growing at an alarming rate.  Many cannot resist the temptation of cheap drugs to take away the pain of poverty and rejection.  When a child does not have any affection, any warmth or love, he takes refuge in something.  In Nicaragua this something is the glue*.  The glue is his replacement for his mother, his protection that makes him feel safe while he’s sniffing.   They buy small baby food jars full of glue from vendors who ostensibly sell the glue for shoe repair purposes.  Inhaling the fumes produces hallucinations which numb their hunger and fears.  When they inhale through the mouth they kill their hunger.  When they inhale through the nose they are capable of killing another. 

Social protections for children provided by the state during the Sandinista administration have been stripped away under austerity programs imposed on the Chamorro government.  The only solution for saving a generation of Latin American children at this point is a call to action by NGO’s.

-                   Jeannette Pawula

Charity4LIFE Founder & CEO

*The industrial glue that the children often sniff is Resistol, manufactured by US- based H.B. Fuller Company.  The dangerous component of glue is toluene – a by product of oil refining that is severely restricted in the US Yet Fuller continues to manufacture and distribute the adhesive in Latin America, despite the evidence that it is helping to destroy a generation of Latin American Children.”