The following is a guest post written by Tim Tendick about his visit to a Peru-based organization called Casa Generacion, which works to defend and protect the human rights of children, youth, and teenagers at risk who live in the streets of Lima, Peru. 

Martiza-smilingMeet Martiza, a Child Living on the Streets of Lima, Peru

Maritza is in trouble.

She stands to the side, face closed in a seriousness that belies her age, big brown eyes observing. She has a lock of her dark hair in her mouth, chewing at it, a nervous habit she has picked up in her few but difficult years. I guess her age at four, maybe five. It’s not until later that I will learn that she turns seven next week, her small size a consequence of childhood malnutrition.

Maritza is in trouble. Here. Today.

Clad in faded green pajama pants and a gray Angry Birds shirt, she is watching me speak with Lucy Borja, the founder and iron core of Casa Generacion, a non-profit that works to help the street children of Lima, Peru.

At seven years of age, Maritza has about five more years before she could be forced into prostitution, selling her virginity for $65. She might have a few years earning half that much, but within a decade she might be one of the women selling themselves for $6.

With or without prostitution, she could easily become one of the street kids sleeping under a bridge, at risk for tuberculosis, and damaging her brain with the cheap high from sniffing glue. A study in 1999 reported that 97% of street children in Lima use drugs.

But Maritza isn’t in that kind of trouble. Not today at least. Today she is grounded, kept home while the other kids went to the playground. A recent arrival at Casa Generacion, she does not always  play well with others. This morning she bit one of the volunteers, and pushed her younger brother down the two porch stairs.

These may be normal behaviors for a child, but given the brutal world she came from, the staff at Casa Generacion is making sure to show her that such behavior is not accepted there. It’s hard to tell, especially with a child as stern-faced as Maritza, but she seems to be learning the lesson.

So yes, Maritza is in trouble. Her life is already bending towards a path to abuse, risk, and desperation, but there is hope that she can be helped away from all of that, and towards a better future. Tonight she is grounded, but in an hour she will be given a slice of birthday cake, along with everyone else, and tomorrow is a new day.

And Casa Generacion will be here when she wakes up.

Tendick is a traveling writer and photographer, who also teaches. Because he’s well-rounded like that. Most of his adventures can be found on vagabondurges.com. He gratefully traveled with Altruvistas to Cuba and Venezuela in 2014.

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The work of Casa Generacion started in 1988 and currently promotes and protects street children’s rights. Since they opened, Generation has helped hundreds of children from exploitation and trafficking in Peru.

If you’d like to learn more about Casa Generacion and how you can help support their important work, visit www.friendsofgeneracion.org/who-we-are/.

Altruvistas arranges for travelers to meet directly with organizations like Casa Generacion that are doing great work all around the world. Check out our Upcoming Journeys page to see what trips are coming up, then click on ‘itinerary’ to see which organizations we’ll be meeting with.