House provides discipline, education for Dominican street kids

Published: 2006-03-21

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) -- Andres de Jesus Silva gets up at 7 a.m., does his household chores, cleans his room, washes up, has breakfast and is ready for school at 8:30 a.m. The 15-year-old would be a parents' dream if he had a mother and father. A year ago the orphan was sleeping in an open-air food market at night. He was one of the growing number of street children creating criminal problems and stretching social services in Santo Domingo. Now he is living in a house for street children; it provides education, recreation and counseling services in addition to food and lodging. "It's better than life in the streets," said de Jesus, who even has time in the afternoon to play some baseball with his friends. For about a year he has lived in the house run by Yo Tambien, a program sponsored by several private Dominican child agencies and Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. "Yo tambien" is a Spanish phrase that literally means "I, as well" and is used idiomatically to emphasize one's claim to entitlement.

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