We have been working with a group of about 12 street children and adolescents near the bus terminal for approximately one year. Much of this time has been spent building relationship and trust with these kids who have difficulty trusting that anyone wants to be their friend without any strings attached. These are girls and adolescents who either live on the streets or spend the majority of their time on the streets and do not have contact with family. The overwhelming majority of them sniff a cheap shoe repair adhesive that acts as a neurotoxin- dulling the pain and both physical and spiritual emptiness of their lives. We journey to the terminal area 2-3 nights per week, and mostly listen to what’s going on in their lives and see how we can help them.

There are many other organizations that are working with the street children of Cochabamba; it is not our goal to reinvent the wheel in terms of the services that are available to these children. Our goal is to connect them to services and programs already in place to help meet their needs. First, we seek to be these children’s friends, generating confidence based on genuine relationship. This always leads to their seeking advice and direction, at which point we link them with the services they needed.

Through our relationships with girls living on the street in particular, we have noticed several gaps in services. Thus, we are developing programs to meet those needs that remain unaddressed. We are particularly excited that since January we have been able to offer counseling services to the girls with our newly hired psychologist. The psychologist is involved in relational ministry on the streets, but also provides individual counseling sessions with girls who have expressed a desire to deal with the issues facing them.

We also have been using space in our office to provide informal counseling as well as opportunities to attend classes on motherhood and simple skills such as sewing and card-making. We are hoping to host special events in the evenings as well, such as birthday and holiday celebrations.