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Brazil
“Cidade de Meninos” or Boys’ Town is some distance from the city of Rio de Janeiro in the mountainous interior of the state. I served as chaplain there at one time and was glad to revisit recently to speak to the psychologist, Dr. Angela Maria Rocha, who works there one day a week. It was good to be reminded of the pleasant surroundings, caring atmosphere and wholesome food, and to be with the youngsters and staff again.
Angela was not slow to bring me up to date. Despite the reputation of being the best institution of its kind, Boys’ Town continues to face problems around acceptable behaviour and acceptable levels of discipline. A “game” which, according to her, had much to do with power (and the temporary absence of the administrator through ill-health), had recently developed of climbing on the roof and taunting staff. This may be fun for the boys but it is very wearing for the residential care team. Questions of not valuing the secure environment and physical care sprang to mind. But my need was to think a little more about abandoned children.
Without hesitation Angela spoke of certain individuals, for example, Roberto. In the absence of documentation he was thought to be about 16. After medical bone-formation tests it seems he is 18 or 19, and therefore beyond the age he can stay in the home. What to do? At around five he had been taken into care. Badly abused and subsequently rejected by his very poor family, he suffered a further unfortunate experience in the "godparents scheme" that the home set up as a (usually successful) link with the wider community. The care team, which includes social workers and educators, is aware that his time at Boys’ Town has done little for his low self-esteem; he doesn’t relate well with the others particularly those who are younger. One small sign of hope is that he aspires to friendship with his peers at school. There is an imaginative suggestion that he live in a community in a poor but nonthreatening neighbourhood where there is a church that consists exclusively of young people. It is one of the communities for which I have pastoral care. There is much careful planning to be done. When I mentioned this to him he had little to say. However, the mixture of youthful excitement and anxiety was only too obvious in his face.
Those who arrive at Boys’ Town have usually lost one parent, the second being absent or incapable. It is relatively easy to arrange adoptions for babies but things become increasingly complicated as children get older. Ivandro, whose mother is a drugs trafficker now in prison, was taken off the streets where he had been hiding from violent “uncles”. According to Angela he has long given up expecting affection and the best he hopes for is protection from violence, a protection that he had experienced away from his home as one of the many children on the streets.
The home has its success stories. One youngster, an orphan of both parents, Eduardo, is now studying law at University and living with the family who had been his “godparents”. And there is Frederico, aged 14, whose mother has recently died after a long illness. He arrived long before her death and has responded well both at the college and with relationships and responsibilities in the home. Angela says that despite the sad incapacity of the mother to care for her son in the latter years and the cruel poverty of the home, his well-being and sense of belonging in the early years has given him strength to live creatively within his circumstances.
But what about the threatening behaviour on the roof? It is difficult for any institution to compensate for the absence of family and patterns of abandonment. It is extremely rare to meet a child who would not choose to be with a family, whatever its circumstances, rather than in the home even with all its order, cleanliness, food, college and even little swimming pool. Even if some rebellion and naughtiness are normal they become more complicated with this volume of damage from home and street. The roof is a sign of things ticking away below the surface: a gesture of power hiding the frustrations, the loss, the elusive desires. Angela is clear: "There are limits to what we can achieve and many unhealed wounds, but if violence and abuse leave their scars there is always the hope that patient and long-term understanding and disciplined care might leave their traces. Who knows when they might flourish?”
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