Los Cleferos

I´m not sure if many of you remember me mentioning in my first blog the children who live on the street here in Bolivia. As I have heard, it is fairly common for children to live in the streets throughout all of Latin America and I´m sure what I am about to say goes for all street children, not just those who live here in Cochabamba.

Los cleferos are the children who live in the street here and get high by sniffing glue. Obviously, they become highly addicted and they are often times dangerous to encounter because of their tendencies towards aggression and for robbing people. There are several reasons for them living in the streets, many which I am still learning about, but the two main reasons seem to be because they have escaped an abusive household and would rather live in the street or they have no other option. The majority, if not all, of the orphanages here only allow children to live there up to a certain age, usually 14, and once they reach the age limit they are forced out onto the streets. You can only imagine the large amount of children there are without a home.

Today on the news they were talking about how the police are going into the streets to ¨capture¨ los cleferos and take them to a home. I feel like this is only a half attempt to really solve the problems of los cleferos and it doesn´t really do much good at all. Many of los cleferos end up escaping the homes they are taken to and return to the streets to continue doing drugs.

It is really a difficult situation that requires strong action from both the government and the community, something that is not happening right now. There are people who work with los cleferos, some in the streets individually and some with organizations. My host dad´s sister works with an organization called Mosojyan, which means ¨new path¨in quechua. They largely work with young girls who become pregnant, trying to give them jobs so they can become self sustainable. For those who work with Mosojyan the pay is very little for the hard work they do.

This brings to mind the little pay the social workers receive in the United States. It is hard to understand why those who work so hard to help solve the problems of others receive such little in return. I believe it is something that strongly needs to be addressed and changed not only for the sake of social workers but for those who need help as well.

I wish I had answers for how Bolivia could change the current situation of los cleferos. I think the policies of the orphanages definitely need to be addressed and there also needs to be some way to address abusive home issues. For those who are taken to homes, their psychological issues need to be treated and transitioning them from drug addiction is also highly important.

These are only my opinions: opinions that I´m sure others have held as well. In the United States we are very fortunate to have a goverment that functions well enough to effectively address the issues of homeless children. Of couse our system isn´t perfect, but in comparison to Bolivia I think we have a better working system, thus a better situation and better options.

Furthermore, I don´t think the issue of los cleferos is only a Bolivian issue but rather a wordly issue. This might make it too broad of an issue to be addressed but all the same it is a pressing issue that communities need to address individually. All children deserve a future and it is up to the human population to ensure they are given the opportunity.