Many of the children of Horno Ckasa have only one parent. Some are orphans. The families that exist are often mixed families. Violence is all too familiar in the home. Families of five or more kids are squeezed into tiny homes and parents come home empty-handed from another day looking for work with no success meaning the children won’t be eating dinner again. Each of these realities has helped lead to the increase of gang involvement in the communities.

FHI workers Marina and Francisco work with children involved in gangs looking for ways to get them back in school, back at home with their families, and out of a life on the streets.

“What child is going to want to go home when he knows there’s no dinner waiting for him and there’s a good possibility his dad will hit him?” Marina explained. “We try and look at the core of these kids. Under the robbing and cussing is a good kid who needs someone to tell him they believe in him and someone to take the time to show him he counts.”

Andres is one of the boys in Horno Ckasa who used to be involved in a gang. He’s now twelve years old. When Marina met him he was a troublemaker caught stealing by neighbors, drinking chicha in the local stores, and sleeping in parks or in the market instead of going home. He hadn’t been going to school for over a year when Marina befriended him.

“What Andres needed was someone to show him love. He told us early on that he hated everyone and felt like he had no one to love and no one who loved him. I started tutoring him since he wasn’t going to school and just started spending time with him. I knew things were pretty bad at home for him. Sometimes he would come running to my house crying after something happened at home. His father would be coming behind him.”

“His father wants to be a good father. It’s hard because Andres wants to be with his mother and his four siblings. His parents were divorced a few years ago and split the kids up between them. His father’s new wife thinks Andres will never change. She waits for him to do something so she can report it to his father.”

“We’ve seen a lot of changes in Andres. He became a Christian last November. My husband and I take him to church with us whenever we can. I can’t say that he doesn’t rob at all anymore, but it’s much less than before. He’s stopped drinking and went back to school about eight months ago. Around me, he’s a super kid. He never uses bad language and he always comes cleaned up. However, in front of his step-mom he puts up the same wall as before.”

“We’ve also seen changes in his father who used to escape into his work instead of trying to take an interest in Andres. We talked to him about the unconditional love that a father owes his children. We also explained the importance of education. He went to the school to enrol Andres in classes last July. Now he even helps him sometimes with his homework.”

“We asked Andres later if he had anyone to love yet. He said “Yes, Marina, Chris, and Jesus.” It’s been such a huge reward for us to see Andres develop! He has such potential. If we can find a way to show him what we see in him there’ll be no limits to what he can achieve.”