Street Kids Direct are very excited that one of the boys who has come through the mentoring programme, Danilo Cuin, has been offered a two-year training placement with Rock UK, starting this September.

Danilo will start with an intensive 3-4 month training programme in a variety of outdoor sports and experiences that he will be then teaching to children and youth at their centre in Kent.

We are proud of all Danilo has achieved with his life and now the next stage will soon begin. Your support really does change lives!

For a brief history of Danilo and how his life from the rubbish dump in Guatemala City to street-child work began, please WATCH THIS VIDEO.

Thanks to funds raised on Radio Christmas and the support of Global Care UK we have been able to keep the Casa Alexis Children´s Home open in Guatemala City.

The Protection Home was opened to offer a safe place of refuge for children and families at great social risk. The home has been used to protect children who have had death threats from gangs, families in great need or homeless and children and youth who need times of protection, love, care and support.

This past week these three sisters were able to be with us due to some challenging family situations.  The girls loved the experience of being cared for able and sleep safely while arrangements were made for their longer term care.

Your support really impacts lives and helps us be there when children need us most.

THANK YOU

Street Kids Direct began receiving a large number of donations for 50p, £1 and £2 all of a sudden and wondered what was happening as the messages said "Let´s break those rules!" and we wondered what was going on!

After some investigation we discovered that the donations came from parents of the children at Elangeni School in Amersham who had decided to organise a fundraising event when they returned to school this year.  Hannah Wittich from the Elangeni School Council wrote to us this week to explain what they did.  

We loved the idea so much and think it could be a fantastic fundraising opportunity for other schools as it easy to setup and raised so much more than they had planned.  

THANK YOU ELANGENI SCHOOL FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

REPORT BY HANNAH

By Hannah Wittich

On Friday 19^th January, Elangeni School had an amazing ‘Break the Rules Day’ to raise money for Street Kids and Radio Christmas. It was organised by the school council who came up with 6 rules that could be broken by the pupils.

The rules suggested were: Hair not tied up, shirt untucked, own choice of t-shirt, colourful socks, non-regulation footwear and bringing a toy to school. For each broken rule children were charged 50p and there was a great sense of excitement around the school (from the pupils not the teachers!!)

Our target was to raise £250 for this amazing charity but we actually smashed the target and raised £624 which is a HUGE amount.

My favourite rule to break was having my hair down however wearing funky shoes was also very exciting. This was a fun day where we got to help others and have lots of fun!!

In 1991 the BBC broadcast its popular Sunday evening Everyman documentary programme and one programme in the series has impacted the lives of thousands of children in Central America. 

The programme was called `They Shoot Children, Don´t They?´and highlighted the torture and killing of children on the streets of Guatemala City, in Guatemala, Central America.

That dark Sunday night Duncan Dyason was on his way home from running a youth group at his church in Amersham and turned on the TV not knowing the programme was to be screened and could not believe what he was watching.

The programme and the plight of the children living on the streets changed his life and the following year Duncan moved to Guatemala City and began to work on the streets with the organisation that was featured in the TV documentary.  The rest is history!

The full programme is now available to watch on our YouTube channel and on VIMEO thanks to Judy Jackson who directed the programme and gave us permission to share the video.  Her commitment to bringing the desperate situation of the torture and killing of street children to the world stage led to the reduction of children living on the streets and the establishment of many programmes to help the children.

Today Guatemala does not have any children living on the streets and we are thankful to Judy for the hard work she and her team did to make this documentary.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE