This is Irma.
She is a sweet little girl, 4 years old. Irma has a good personality, is friendly and a leader in her group. She is a smart and capable child. But, she was abandoned by an unknown person at the Judge Office doorsteps, in El Progreso, Honduras.
¿How can anyone abandon such a beautiful creature? My heart breaks with pain.
It is hard to imagine, but true, millions of children across the world call the streets home. Their young lives are marred by neglect and abuse. Too often drugs become a cheap and reliable escape from their lives of misery.
How does a child end up on the streets?
The reasons are many and complex: poverty, disintegration of the family, abuse and neglect are chief culprits.
Some children are sent to the streets to earn money for the family. Other children turn to the streets hoping to escape physical and sexual abuse.
Many turn to the streets looking to escape the terrible reality of their impoverished home.
Sadly, the find even worse misery await them in the streets.
These young children live lives we can’t even imagine. Lost to the streets they take comfort usually in drugs. Huffing shoe glue is a common practice and reduces hunger pangs. Flattened cardboard boxes often serve as a street child’s “mattress”.
Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has a GNP per capita of about 1.000 $ (vs. 30.000 for Spain), 150th in a ranking of 215 countries.
With an area of 43,277 square miles (112,088 square kilometres) and a population of only 6.9 million Honduras is also one of the smallest countries in Latin America.
Honduras’s economic and social problems were compounded in 1998 when Hurricane Mitch struck. More than 5,000 people were killed and 70% of the country’s crops were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $3 billion dollars and economic and social development was set back decades. The poverty and unemployment has caused a dramatic rise in gang warfare throughout Honduras since Mitch struck. Police estimate that more than 33,000 gang members stalk the country.
Close to 65% of Hondurans live below the poverty line with malnutrition, poor housing and domestic violence rampant.
Can you do anything to help?
Yes you can. There are organisations that create brighter futures for these children.
