“With cold hands and an empty stomach, walking without stopping, with the sole objective of surviving the endless night, and when the forces are about to abandon me, it is possible to see the dim light of dawn, and finally when the day, friends and life itself manage to make me smile, giving me strength to survive, I tell myself just one more day” were the words of one of those teenagers.

Stories like this are daily in the lives of thousands of girls, boys, adolescents, and adults who are homeless in the municipalities of La Paz and El Alto. They are part of a family like many of us, with the difference that in their case there is a dysfunctional situation of extreme poverty, violence, absence of parents, and in countless cases alcoholism. These situations touch the most sensitive of those whom, endlessly search the street for that security, affection, and recognition that they cannot find at home.

In their search to find recognition and acceptance, they come across the crudest and cruelest thing that the street has to offer them, and every day finding girls and boys begging for money and food, forced to commit theft, robbery, consume and abuse alcohol, and provide sexual services. All of this to survive in their day to day. Sadly, after long days and even years of living under these circumstances, where many problems are present, such as physical deterioration, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, family separation and in some cases, death comes early. No matter their age, their illness, the bills must be paid regardless, for those who are survivors, their end is marked in indigence.

THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS, NOT OBJECTS

Giving answers or solutions to the different adversities these people go through is as important as it is complicated, which is why the “Street Project of the Arco Iris Foundation” has the areas of Social Work, Psychology, Education, Legal, Health and Nutrition, and trained professionals who work with commitment and responsibility for the benefit and help of these people.

The goals intended to reach are marked as firm and essential steps to be taken to achieve them. The friendly self-acceptance of people will be transformed into mutual trust and the creation of a favorable and unbreakable emotional bond, which is the corner stone of continued success. They begin the long-awaited process of social reintegration, on which a new life project will be built in the future.

Success begins with Effort.

The struggle is daily for all children, adolescents, and adults who have found a refuge in the streets. However, every battle has an end, and thanks to the communal hard work many endings are happy. It has been possible to overcome the adversities of life with great personal and collective effort. Effort that becomes an unbreakable determination and perseverance, that the technical team of the project has been able to reinforce and motivate through different personalized actions, that at the end of the process the result is to recognize a functional and productive person of self and society.