Saving Sao Paulo's Street Kids
“Transforming the lives of children at mortal risk, providing them and their future generations a productive future and eternal hope” is the mission of Hope Unlimited for Children, brainchild of Americans Phillip Smith and his father Rev. Jack Smith. The program is a three step approach of rescue, transformation, and reintegration. There are approximately 7 million children living on the streets of Brazil whose survival rate is only three to four years.
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After years of lending personal financial support, recently I was blessed with making (what will become) my first visit to a remarkable place located near Campinas, Brazil. Campinas is approximately 1.5 hours drive, north of Sao Paulo. This safe haven is currently giving 180 boys and 60 girls a sense of self-worth, a structured family setting, life-skills and introduces each to our Heavenly Father. I witnessed young lives being transformed from hopelessness into hope. The kids are mentored even after leaving the campus at the age of eigthteen and moving into transitional housing. You, too, can make a positive difference in the lives of these kids...if only one at a time.
   
I got to meet several boys, including Artemis and Jefferson, who proudly showed contents of the very organized closets which held their worldly possessions. Each group home houses 16 boys along with house parents. A councilor commented how the closets correlated with issues in the boys' daily lives. When problems arise it becomes noticeable how the closet becomes disorganized.
My short visit was amazing in more ways than one. Phillip told his personal story and that of a young boy who he first met while growing up in Ethiopia where his father began taking in street kids and housing them in their back yard. One of those kids is the father of Amos Disasa. Well, I had just met Amos outside a classroom who had become a pastor at the Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina. Amos and members of the church congregation were revisiting the campus after 10 years. It was the Eastminster Church that spearheaded the acquisition of the girls' group homes at Hope Unlimited. The girls are transported to the Boys' City to attend classes and return nightly to a protected and beautiful home shared by 13 others, per household, in addition to a house mom.
   
Learn more about the daily miracles taking place at Hope Unlimited and how you can help by going to www.hopeunlimited.org or contact me directly at mjadams@century21.com
Other Links: Hope Enterprises; NBC Nightly News; Share with a Friend
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