ChildHope – a never-ending story...

ChildHope – The never-ending story VII, originally uploaded by carf.

Alone we are nothing! We can’t save all of the lost souls on the streets but everyone can do a little more to avoid this from happening:

Djalma, a lost soul!

(On one of his seldom visits to Hummingbird, memories of better days).

Look at me in this photo; on the streets as a child on the Praça da Sé (Cathedral Plaza) in 1993.
In 1994, I was rescued from the streets by Gregory and CARF, together with Eliana, Fábio and Sandra, but after five years off the streets in his safekeeping, I decided to go back home to my mother, brother, sister and stepfather.

I shouldn’t have done that!

Look at me today; 2005 and still floating as a juvenile delinquent, between the streets and prison.

Yeah! I’m the kinda’ guy who’d stick a gun through your open car window at the crossroads, then I’d tell you to give me whatever you have of value. I probably wouldn’t shoot because lucky for you, I was raised with certain values, which I have tried very hard to live by but never really succeeded. I sometimes get shot at by the drivers, but they usually miss because they don’t really know how to use those guns.

Lucky for me! But for how long? One driver beat me over the head the other day with an iron pole and I had to sow a few more stitches. Take a look at the stitches! Do you remember the big hole I got in my head when I was only 9-years old? I fell of the roof of a speeding train. My mate did too, poor kid, he died! You remember!

I miss those good years. I yearn for the comfort of a home I once had, for the love and caring from the people who once surrounded me. "Do meu tio!" For my “brothers” and “sisters” from the streets, who now live normal lives because they decided to stay. Why I didn’t, I really don’t know. I wish I had (at which he gave me a very tight and hard hug!) I’d love to stay but I know I can’t! My life won’t let me! It’s too late now, I just have to keep going as long as I can. Drugs! Streets! You know...

My mother? I really don’t know where she is anymore. What can she do for me anyway? Nothing! Maybe I should try and find her. On the other hand, I need to get back to the streets, that’s where I belong!

Photo by Gregory J. Smith, CARF, São Paulo - BRAZIL.