CARF - CHILDREN AT RISK FOUNDATION
I met Alma Horn, the painter of Golden Boy, at RedBubble.com where our art is showcased. Alma dedicated her beautiful painting (below) to Rodney. Alma writes, " ....[Rodney] lived with his little brother on the streets in São Paulo and was tragically murdered in 2008. Their lives have been pretty much guided by fate and fortune, like most other kids on the streets of the big cities in the world. An unstable childhood due to their mother’s alcoholism, has led them to end up on the streets full-time. It is unacceptable that 21st century children are still at risk on the streets."
'Golden Boy' courtesy of Alma Horn
Carf Brazil, was established by Gregory J. Smith in São Paulo in 1993, to benefit the street children of Brazil by defending their rights and offering them a dignified solution so that they could live and grow within a family-oriented context and healthy social environment. As Grerory quotes, Albert Einstein said: “The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.” Support them at http://carfwebnet.blogspot.com/.
'The Memory' courtesy of Alma Horn
"Memory"
"Like a bird singing in the rain,let grateful memories survive in times of sorrow."- Robert Louis Stevenson
Dedicated to Claudiney, tragically killed while living on the streets of Brazil at the age of 11.
Special thanks to talanted Alma Hunt for offering her artwork here. Please visit her website at: http://almahorn.blogspot.com
Straight from CARF's website:
Slavery ended in Haiti in 1804, but nearly two hundred years later slavery continues to exist in Haitian society under a new name, restavek, the Kreyol word meaning "stay with". Restavek is Haiti's form of child domestic work, resulting in no less than 300.000 child slaves. After years of maltreatment and abuse, many of these children will eventually be abandoned to the streets, weak and ineligible to live any normal life.
Through the exploitation of African slaves, Europeans in their colonies and the European market itself, flourished from the profitable plantations, the profit-creating slaves and the siphoning of money into the European market.
Today, the availability of resources in Haiti is scarce and the standard of living is low, making this one the most impoverished and underdeveloped nations in the world, where people live in stark deprivation and terror. The country lacks a steady economy and political stability. It’s tragic inability to enforce important laws leaves street children andrestaveks totally unprotected and abandoned by society.
Unlike the visible street children, constantly appearing in public places and thereby accessible for investigation and aid, restaveks are hidden away in the private realm of the home, a social space controlled by masters, hindering any chances they have of being helped. Because this space is private, child domestics are difficult to reach, count, investigate or rescue. READ FULL ARTICLE