Empowering families as an alternative to foster care for street children in Brazil

Abstract

Although the emphasis in current thinking about work with street children has changed from aid-dependency towards youth protagonism, many organisations ignore the role of the children's families in their interventions. In so doing, they reproduce obsolete welfare traditions and also violate rights guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and national legislation. This article illustrates the importance of child–family ties for both children and families, and argues that interventions that lack the involvement of parents and families serve to reproduce images of failed families and inadequate mothers. The author presents an alternative approach from Brazil which respects the rights and needs of children and families through family empowerment.

Keywords:

• Social Sector
• Gender and Diversity
• Rights
• Methods
• Latin America and the Caribbean

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Rejane Maria Simões Guedes of Grupo Ruas e Praças for her constant efforts to improve the family social-work programme and to Alexandra Widmann for reviewing this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Schwinger

Michael Schwinger is a PhD student at the University of Mainz, where he is working on the institutional sustainability of NGOs in the Brazilian Northeast. He has worked with Brazilian children and youth projects for many years and is President of the German grassroots NGOs Rua and Pro Brasilia.