The children

Performing Life works with two related groups of youth here in Cochabamba.  The first consists of children who work in the streets to support themselves and/or their families and are known as “working youth”.   The majority of the youth working in factories or other businesses often face exploitation in their working environments. For this reason many youth work independently, selling wares, shining shoes, and washing cars.  The second group – “street youth” – includes kids who are both working and living on the streets.  Even more than working youth, street youth face immense challenges and dangers in their daily lives.  It is common to walk the streets of Cochabamba and see many children and adolescents who have left their homes or were born on the streets and have fallen into patterns of drug abuse and delinquency. The most common drug, an inhalant called clefa, is a type of glue used to repair shoes.  It is taken in order to alleviate the feelings of hunger, cold, and depression.  These youths live in large groups throughout the city, sleeping under bridges or in the parks. While some work, many street youth make support themselves through begging and theft.

In Cochabamba both working and street youth frequently come from the most marginalized communities in Bolivian society – communities that lack access to basic services such as electricity, water, and sanitation; health care, including options for family planning; opportunities for quality education; and real prospects for economic mobility.  These communities, and the families that constitute them, possess high rates of spousal and child abuse, alcohol and drug dependence, and other challenges that make real and last positive changes extremely difficult.  This is why Performing Life believes that investing in children’s futures – and breaking the cycle of poverty that contributes to all the aforementioned challenges – is a generational investment.