WELCOME AND LISTENING CENTRE

Excerpts from the "Brief treaty on teacher's intentions"

* The welcome organization and the care of street children
* The family home
* The home for young workers
* The Work Help Centre

Street child has not only lost contact with his family but also with adults.

This dialogue with adults must be renewed at any cost. This is the role of a teacher at the Welcome and Listening centre (WLC).

Once this dialogue with adults is renewed, the child must be reinserted into his family - something which the teacher accomplishes in at least 60% of cases. As the family could have improved, or the family atmosphere could have changed, nothing is definitive.

When all chances of reinsertion have been exhausted, or when the child cannot find his or her family, the child must be placed in a welcome structure with a definitive guardian: this will be a type of family home.

Finally, the child must be reinserted into the adolescent world, and then the world of adults, via education, training, and professional assistance.

• Teachers.

A WLC functions with two or three teachers. One ensures the continued functioning of WLC, while the other is on a break or finding children who sleep in the street. When the teacher finds these children, he or she invites them to sleep in the home, but does not force them to do so.

The teacher contacts security forces (the police, local law enforcement, etc.) and explains his or her role to them. The teacher has a working relationship with the security forces but does not work with them directly, so as not to frighten or intimidate the street children. He or she wears clothing bearing the acronym of his or her association in order to avoid disregard or contempt for his or her position.

• The function of a Welcome and Listening centre.

WLC is a place to welcome and receive children. The child can sleep here without worrying. At WLC, he or she finds mats, mattresses, and blankets. He or she can go to the bathroom, wash, and take a shower (towels are provided).

WLC is a place for listening. Here, the street child will find a teacher who is there to listen to him or her. This is probably the only moment in his or her day where he or she will have an adult available to listen to him. The teacher must discover this child’s problems little by little and find out why he or she is in the street. The teacher must keep in mind that the child almost always lies, and that the truth will appear only little by little. Once the child’s confidence is won over, the teacher can think about taking the child to his or her family environment, and eventually helping out the family. When the teacher decides that this child can’t really be brought back to his or her family, the child must be directed to a type of family home.

WLC has basic medicines to care for minor infections, injuries, and coughs. But the teacher isn’t a nurse. He or she will direct the child to the nearest infirmary if the child needs it.

At WLC, the child can be fed at night, a way to persuade the children to leave street life behind.

WLC is equipped with minimal furniture (mats, mattresses, blankets) and eventually a television if this will encourage the children to stop watching pornographic videos.

The child must be able to wash, bathe, and dry off. Every shower has a bar of soap attached to a cord. The child will have a towel to dry himself or herself off.

Discipline is a must. Everyone will respect bedtime and wakeup hours. The children are responsible for cleaning their space. And most importantly, the child is taught to abandon lies, theft, drugs, and prostitution.

Documents. WLC has a first register where the following information is available daily: date, name of service teachers, name and age of children brought in for the night, hour of welcome, incidents.

A second register lists the information gained progressively on each of the children. Here, there is one page per child including the child’s name, date of birth, all information found on his or her parents, information on the child’s character and way of life, visits made by the parents, medical intervention and treatment, etc..

• WLC accounts.

The centre’s accounts are kept updated in:
- the journal register (this cashier’s book has two copies, and contains daily entries, outings, and funds allocated to WLC)
- the inventory register, containing the centre’s list of materials
- the register of goods and services
- the monthly account of activities

When welcome centre teachers cannot reintegrate the child into his or her family, even when expanded, the teachers must direct the child to a family home.

He or she must join the home at his or her own free will. The teacher must proceed very delicately in this process.

• The home.

The family home is made up of one male and one female teacher, both of a mature age, without children if possible, one or two family aides appropriate to the age of the children, and about fifteen children. Teachers with more than two children of their own will not be considered for the position because they will not have enough time to give to this new family. At the home, the child will find the family environment that is necessary for his or her growth. He or she will be directed in a good-natured, loving way, but firmly. The home will be a simple family for the child, and if possible, close to local schools. The child will learn how to clean the house (a rotation of chores will be established), do laundry, to harvest rice paddies, etc..

• Hygiene.

Poverty does not exclude hygiene. The child must be clean and have proper habits. Learning basic hygiene is difficult for a street child, but is essential. The teacher and his or her family must be the example of good hygiene for the child. The shower must be a requirement, something that is not always obvious for street children at the beginning.

• Equipment.

The home will be equipped with the necessary kitchen utensils, bunk beds, and tables with benches or stools where the child can eat but also do his homework, write, read, etc.. Every child will have one bed (or one bed for two smaller children), blankets, towels, and a drawer or basket where he can keep his change of clothes and pajamas.

• Education and learning.

The young child will be educated. However, keeping in mind his having fallen behind in schooling, he will most often receive a technical education. The child will be given intensive make-up lessons and training workshops. When the child begins a training or apprenticeship, he will learn the basic tools of his profession from the association with whom he trains. The training will be very controlled, as bosses have a tendency to exploit this chance at free labor. These skills will prove useful at the end of the training, when the child leaves the home for the outside world.

When the children reach age 16 or 17, depending on their maturity, they will leave the home for a home for young apprentices or interns. They will remain connected with their family homes who they can visit for parties, Sunday visits, similar to older children who go back to visit their own families.

• Clothing.

Store-bought clothing has much more value than donated clothing; our clothing is never donated but is always bought. The clothing we buy is sold at the lowest price at various budget clothing stores. The production of these bargain clothes allow us to buy clothing in bulk. This is the function of the manager of the home.

• Here one can also find:

A sewing workshop where a supervisor is in charge of the older girls who have finished their education. When these girls are finished with their training, they must leave the home with their sewing machine.

Different workshops that function according to the same conditions as the sewing workshop (embroidery, silk painting, etc.). These workshops have an independent budget just like small businesses in the real world. If certain workshops become autonomous, they will be separated from the association and organized into cooperatives. A new workshop will be created to replace that which has become independent.

Family gardens attached to the homes give an added ease to the home and are an excellent source of training for the children. The sale of garden products are an opportunity to give pocket money to children who don’t have it.

Experience shows that the transition from the family home to an independent professional life must not be a sudden, brutal one.

The home for young workers serves, therefore, as the transition for these children. This home is directed by a "mother", but the children participate financially and materially in home life.
Expenses are divided by the number of participants. When a child doesn’t earn enough money to cover his expenses, the association makes up the difference.
In addition, all children receive a little bit of pocket money, eventually provided by the association.

All participate in material life: maintaining the building and the garden, cleaning, cooking, doing the dishes, doing laundry, etc..

The children are strongly encouraged to open a savings account, which will be useful to them when they leave the home.

Some street children eventually become street mothers. A Work Help Centre (WHC) has the goal of professionally training mothers before reinserting them as soon as possible into society. When they arrive, they are completely taken care of: clothing, food, and lodging. But they are only welcomed if they accept to follow some professional training. (...)

How can they be saved? ...

... Criticisms levelled at homes

Created on 5 march, 2005 - Updated on 19 november, 2008