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  • The annual Camino por Amor (Walking for Love) sponsored walk returned this August 19th in Guatemala, Honduras and the UK.

    CarmodysWe are very thankful to all those who took part in the walks to raise funds for the ongoing work with at-risk children in Central America.

    In the UK the Windsor Section walked to Windsor Castle.  The Section was made up of Paul, Helen, Michael & Coline who achieved the 25K walk in the heat and raised 152% of their target, which was of great encouragement to the team.

    The Proyecto Alas team in Honduras were joined by Proyecto ROHI and Project New Life, walking the 50K from Tegucigalpa to Talanga.  The walk culminated in a parade through the town of Talanga and many of the children who benefit from funds raised were able to participate in the walk.

    In Guatemala the SKDGuatemala project coordinated three versions of the walk, 10K, 30K and 50K.  They were joined by Go Guatemala, Puerta de Esperanza, MOJOCA and Cada Niño and walked laps around the Erick Barrondo Park in Guatemala City.

    Thank you to Open Marketing in Guatemala City for your sponsorship of the event and for providing the publicity, water bottles and t-shirts.  Thanks to all who donated at the various events and who supported by donating online.  

    We managed to raise £1,750 and are planning to repeat the event next year.

    If you missed the Camino por Amor walk this year, don´t worry.  You can still donate online here and also you might like to consider taking part in one of the many fundraising events throughout the UK during the year by checking out the events page on our website.

     

    Camino23.2

  • 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.


     

    Break RulesREPORT BY HANNAH

    By Hannah Wittich

    On Friday 19th 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

  • One of the projects that Street Kids Direct has supported for over 10 years is the Go Guatemala ministry in Guatemala City.  The dedicated team of volunteers work in the notorious zone 18, which is infamous for its gang membership, kidnappings, extortions and gang warfare.

    Pastors Alex and Evelyn, together with their children and a huge team of volunteers reach out to around 120 at-risk children and youth and provide them with a support structure that helps them thrive, stay in education and make good decisions about not going into the gang.

    Street Kids Direct are committed to helping Go Guatemala and will continue to provide funding that will cover the rent of the building they are using for their outreach. Thanks to funds raised on Radio Christmas we have been able to make this possible.

    This year Go Guatemala will be extending their work thanks to being given a licence from the Guatemalan government to establish a school on their premises.  The school will offer two shifts for local children, a morning shift for fee-paying children and an afternoon shift for children in their programme who won´t need to pay.

    Alex is adamant that the children get the very best education and get the support they need to cope with the trauma they live with on a daily basis.  “So many of the children see family members go into gangs and die at an early age”, Alex explained.  “We talk to the children about what is happening in their lives and how to cope with abuse, violence and the daily threat of the gang” he added.

    We are hopeful that we can help raise further funds to convert part of the building Go Guatemala are using into school rooms.  Street Kids Direct are excited to partner with this innovative project and we hope that this year we will see the establishment of its specialist school for at-risk children in zone 18.

  • Honduras is known for its coffee.  The uniqueness of growing Arabica coffee in Honduras stems from the country´s rich soil, average temperatures and high altitude that places it among the best coffee producing countries in the world.

    The Proyecto Alas ministry in Talanga, Honduras, reaches out to around 60 vulnerable at-risk children and youth with the SKD mentoring programme.  The children have been selected for the programme by local workers, schools and the police due to their strong connection to the streets and the many risk factors in their lives.

    Directors, Steve and Lindsey Poulson, missionaries with CMS UK, wanted to help establish a mentoring centre in Talanga and in other places in Honduras that are increasingly self-sustainable.  One of the businesses that has been established is the Alas brand of coffee as well as opening two coffee shops in Honduras to not only generate funds for the project´s work with the children, but also to offer work to local youths completing their education.

    Alas coffee has been sold in the USA and UK and we are hoping that at various events over the year we can continue to promote their coffee and help them grow the brand in order to establish a longer-term support structure for their work with the children.

  • The Radio Christmas project was a huge success this past year, raising over £25,000 for the projects that Street Kids Direct partner with in Central America.

    Thanks to the huge team of 480 volunteers who helped produce shows from 6am on the 1st December through until 1pm on Christmas Eve, together with all those who helped prepare and read the news, answer the phone and emails and helped with school´s work, events and in promotion, advertising and publicity.

    The success of Radio Christmas this past December, which celebrated 15 years, is not measured just in terms of money raised.  The great community of people that make Radio Christmas bring something special to the local area of the Chilterns as well as broadcast great shows to 180 countries around the world.

    There have been so many memorable moments and if you missed any of the shows you can still listen again and enjoy a huge variety of shows brought to you by a committed team of people, many of whom were young children.

    We were pleased to see more than 20,000 searches for Radio Christmas on Google during December and more people than ever signed up for the newsletter and clicked to follow us on YouTube and Facebook.

    Radio Christmas experienced 52,000 unique listeners with 81% being in the UK and over 180 countries listening in as well during December. This is a 36% increase of online listeners on the last 2 years.

    This December 2024, Radio Christmas will be broadcasting from Guatemala, Honduras, and the USA with some programmes possibly coming from the UK.

    Thank to everyone for your support of the station and its fundraising efforts.

  • Tuesday 10th October 2023

    I think this is the first time I have ever written a blog about the political situation here and do so in the hope that those who read this will pray for the peace of Guatemala, as we are far from that right now.

    The world´s attention has been on horrific scenes of death, destruction and violence in Israel and also in Ukraine and the scale of loss of life there as well as those who lost their lives in Afghanistan is almost too hard to take in right now.

    Here in Guatemala it is rare to find international news agencies picking up the story of what is happening in Guatemala and some supporters have messaged to ask how we are doing, hence this blog update.

    Protests broke out across Guatemala two weeks ago following one of the most contested elections in the country´s history.  At the route of the disquiet from most Guatemalans I have spoken to is the political interference in the natural democratic process of electing a new President.

    To everyone´s surprise the anti-corruption candidate, Bernardo Arévalo, won the second electoral round and sent shock waves through the political elite who had hoped that a supportive candidate will keep the status quo.

    The Attorney-General, Consuelo Porras, has been seen to be actively discrediting Mr Arévalo and preventing him taking office in January, while working to disband his party saying that it was not properly registered.

    guatemala demonstrations2The protests are aimed at the resignation of the Attorney-General who, together with other prosecutors, have been sanctioned by the U.S. government and also have had their entry visas withdrawn.  The accusations of the U.S. government are that she and others working with her are obstructing the fight against corruption and undermining the security and democracy of the country.

    Two weeks ago 14 blockades were established on key transport routes by mainly Indigenous groups who were calling for an indefinite strike.  The blockades grew to 80 yesterday and this morning most of those remain in place.

    Yesterday afternoon I walked to one of the blockades to talk with protesters and to understand their complaints and support a friend of mine who was taking part.  It all seemed very harmless and their determination to fight for what they feel is a just cause could lead to a prolonged period of unrest in the country.

    The Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei, addressed the nation last night and asked for protesters to lift the blockades as they were “illegal, generate supply shortages [and] put Guatemalans' lives at risk".  This morning, government spokesman, Napoleón Barrientos, stated that police would act today to liberate some of the major routes into and out of the city.

    Already there is some panic buying and the Guatemalan City airport has reported a desperate lack of aviation fuel, which would affect flights in the coming days.  One airline, Volaris, has already cancelled all its flights to and from Guatemala and others could follow suit if fuel cannot get through.

    Protestors remain committed to bringing about change in the country that has seen years of corrupt officials stealing huge sums of money from the public purse, leaving schools and hospitals in a pitiful state.

    However, last night things turned ugly in front of the national palace where hundreds of protestors were peacefully demonstrating.  A small group of “infiltrators” began to turn the things violent and police responded by firing tear gas into the fleeing crowd.  Masked men threw stones and broke windows and threatened protestors with sticks and continued to clash with police into the night.

    We are living in a country under siege and each day will impact our work and the lives of the poorest people we work with.  The SKD team will meet today to evaluate the situation and see what help we can offer those whose livelihoods are now affected by the blockades.

    Please pray for peace in Guatemala.

     

     

  • On the afternoon of Monday 25th September 2023 heavy rains caused a huge swell of water that filled the river that runs through the city and together with a landslide has caused the death of many people including children.

    The ongoing crisis to find suitable homes for people on very low incomes forces many to build simple tin shacks on land that has been designated as uninhabitable.  The need for 2.2 million homes exacerbates the desperation that many families living in poverty feel and there is no wonder why they grab any land they can find on which to build their home.

    Yesterday´s tragic landslide under the El Naranjo bridge buried many people and numbers are still being counted, but at this early stage it looks like 6 dead and 13 people unaccounted for.

    The community, named "God is Faithful", has suffered the greatest loss and includes the very sad news that Karla de Paz and her young son Benjamin, named after Benjamin Soden who worked with her and her family for many years, lost their lives in the landslide.  The SKDGuatemala charity is coordinating support for the family and organising the burial of Karla and still hoping that Benjamin´s body will be found.  The funeral is planned for tomorrow morning in Guatemala City.

    Many local and international organisations have been saying that these types of dwellings, precariously clinging to the mountainside around the capital, are a time-bomb waiting to go off.  Most of the shack communities are built on land that has a 30% incline, making it very difficult to build on and when the rains come their homes are are very great risk of being washed away.  The charity Techo, have discovered 150 such settlements around the city, all built on land that has been designated as uninhabitable.

    Local rescue organisations (photos Prensa Libre, used with permission) continue the rescue efforts today to find victims, but hope has been lost of finding any more alive.

    Street Kids Direct continue to work in such communities, focussing on helping children and families at risk.  Your support really does help us make a difference and respond to needs and tragedies on a weekly basis.

    (Photos Prensa Libre 2023 used with permission)

     

  • Street Kids Direct is very thankful to Acquisition International for the award of the Most Transformational Child Rescue Charity 2023 for the South East of England.

    https://www.acquisition-international.com/winners/street-kids-direct/

    We are grateful to all our supporters and the project we partner with in Honduras and Guatemala whose work is acknowledged in this award.

    award ai23

  • Steve & Lindsey Poulson are currently in the UK travelling around speaking at a variety of events to speak about their work with Street Kids Direct in Honduras.

    The missionary couple help corrdinate the outreach work with Proyecto Alas, a local NGO in Talanga, Honduras.  The Alas project reaches children and youth at risk of street life and now have 70 children in the programme.

    Their heart and passion for the children will shine through in every presentation together with their commitment to making the Alas project self sustainable.  They do this through the establishment of businesses that not only help fund the work, but offer employment to students who are being helped by the project.

    To contact Steve and Lindsey and enquire more about their schedule please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and thank you for your support for their work.

  • Over the last two weeks we have been able to offer a safe refuge to a lovely family who grew up and lived in a dangerous part of Guatemala City.  

    The boys were struggling because the local gang were trying to recruit them.  When the older boy refused the family started to get voice messages telling them exactly what would happen to the whole family if the boys didn´t accept the offer to join the gang.

    The recordings of the death threats helped the family demonstrate to the authorities that they were at great risk and so came to the Casa Alexis home in the city for a couple of weeks until safe passage was offered to them in another country.  We wish them well and hope that they are able to thrive in their new environment and we are pleased to be able to play our part in keeping them safe.

    Your support saves lives, thank you.

  • The Alas project that Street Kids Direct supports in Honduras has reported that 4 of the boys in the mentoring programme have passed the entrance exam and were offered places in prestigious residential Christian school, El Sembrador (“The Sower”).

    The boys are some of the most academically capable in Alas, but are from some of the most difficult circumstances. In early February, Steve Poulson drove a bus packed with the boys, their mothers and all their supplies (including mattresses!) the three-hour trip from Talanga to drop the boys off at the school. They seemed to adapt extremely well at first, but after only one month Steve got a call that none of their uniforms fitted.  This was a good thing as now they were actually eating three proper meals a day and had gained weight! However, after the Easter break the boys struggled to go back to into their studies at school, which affected their behaviour. The one who struggled most was Carlitos. Just 24 hours before arriving at El Sembrador for his first day of class, Carlitos was about to join the local gang in Talanga. In the end, he decided to go to El Sembrador to study instead.  At just 13 years old, Carlos is used to his independence and has struggled to submit to authority and rules at El Sembrador. He also continues to be distracted by an offer from his older brother to help him get to the USA illegally.

    It is clearly not an easy decision for the boys to move away from their home town and study in a residential unit, but they are adapting and changing and your support makes this possible. The latest news is that they are all doing really well and we are expecting good half-year grades.  We will keep you posted of their success.

  • Thanks to your support we have been able to open a new mentoring centre in Guatemala City.

    The centre is based in Santa Faz, a developing slum on the outskirts of the city.  We are renting a small shop that we have converted into a safe space for the vulnerable children and youth we work with in that area of the city.

    After many years waiting for a shop or a home to become available to rent we found a small shop that is situated in front of the park (photos below) and also almost opposite the school where many of the children attend.

    We have begun weekly mentoring sessions on a Sunday, homework and support sessions on Thursdays and Fridays and a new youth group on a Friday evening.

    It is an exciting development for the work in Guatemala and the local community have rallied round to help support and volunteer.  The plan is to explore ways we can start a small business there to support the monthly rent of £100.

    The park opposite offers us a great facility for games, sports and larger meetings and has become a much safer place for the children now the gang situation has improved in the area.

    Your support really does make a difference and impacts the lives of many more at-risk children that are now being reached through this new centre.  Thank you.

    santa faz park1  santa faz park2  santa faz park3

  • Street Kids Direct is very grateful to a team from WGM in the USA who came to spend a week with the SKDGuatemala charity in Guatemala.  Three of the team were children who were flying for the first time!
     
    Their week consisted of working with the children in the two mentoring centres and organising a work day in a developing slum on the outskirts of Guatemala City.
     
    The work day pushed everyone to the limit as two projects had to be completed in just one day.  Firstly, to repair a tin roof for a family of 5 who have suffered from flooding every time it rained.  Secondly, to excavate an area at the rear of a tin shack in order to build a working toilet and shower area for the family of 8.
     
    Time was of the essence as the rain was scheduled to return during the day and the construction team needed to mix and set the cement before the rain fell.  The team told us they prayed that it would not rain until 3pm, the time when they had planned to finish the cementing.  Miraculously the team leader, Steve, looked at his watch at exactly 3pm and it began to rain.  Thanks to Kenedy and Juan Carlos from the SKDGuatemala mentoring programme and to Don Mynor for their help on the day.  WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
     
    Thank you to Steve, Brannon, Andrew, Joseph, Stephen, Joshua, Jess and Kevin for one amazing week.  The impact you made was significant and we look forward to you all coming back again one day.
    Watch the team give their feedback report to their church.
     

    WGMTeam3

     
  • Over the last two years Street Kids Direct have worked hard with their partners to keep over 600 at-risk children in education as the government-run schools in Honduras and Guatemala closed due to the COVID pandemic.
     

    In Guatemala over 109,000 children dropped out of education during the first year of COVID, according to UNICEF, and many of those children may never return to school.  So many have started informal work and some in dangerous conditions, while many others have strengthened their connection to streets, which is very concerning for us.

    This past week the charity has been able to participate in graduation ceremonies of children and young people who have been helped to stay in education thanks to your support.

    In the New Year all the children we have been self-educating will return to the national school system and we will look at ways we can continue to support their formal education as our make-shift school in Guatemala will now return to a mentoring centre.

    Watch the video here

    Graduation

  • Street Kids Direct has been working hard over the last few years, together with other organisations and the Guatemala government to help provide effective child protection systems and resources in order to keep children and particularly at-risk children safe.
     
    For the last two years we have been coordinating efforts to advise the Guatemalan government with regards to protecting the human rights of all those who live on the streets in Guatemala. This has led to a white paper being presented to the Guatemalan Congress that we hope will not only protect rights but also provide resources to help those living on the streets access services and support.
     
    We are very grateful to the very hard work of Juan Carlos Silvestre Gonzalez who has represented the charity and helped promote this proposed law with ODISOG.ORG on the 27th October 2022.
     
  • The SKDGuatemala team have been supported by students from the Social Services Department of San Carlos University in Guatemala City to help trial a new parenting programme.

    The programme helps parents understand the impact the decisions they make have on their children, how to effectively parent, how to best support their children and help keep them safe and reach their God-given potential.

    Thanks to Paula, the Coordinator of the Mentoring Centre in the city, the work of supporting the children and their families in their own homes is proving very effective.

    parenting1parenting2parenting3