 |
|
|
 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | December 2006 
Art Project Aims to Help Homeless Kids
 El Universal
| | Children were given blank canvases to paint anything that inspired them. |
At 14, Martín Cruz was faced with a major life decision: Should he leave his home or stay in a toxic family situation? Cruz left. And after bouncing between temporary homes and shelters, he had no choice but to join thousands of children who live on the streets of this megalopolis.
"I didn´t know anything about street life," Cruz, now 17, said. "I didn´t know how to face hunger, how to survive in the cold or how to beg."
These days, Cruz looks back on the year he spent living on the streets and doesn´t know how he would have survived without help from Casa Ecuador - the privately-run shelter for children and teens where he eventually ended up living. He has spent the last three years of his life under its roof, along with nearly 50 other children and teens who were also forced onto Mexico City´s streets.
This weekend, Cruz joined dozens of housemates on Casa Ecuador´s rooftop in a unique art and charity project that will help improve and renovate the house.
Children were given blank canvases to paint anything that inspired them. Hines Interests, an international real estate company, will donate thousands of dollars to purchase the paintings, which range from scenes of sunrises to views of Mexico City´s skyline. The company will then surprise clients and partners by giving the artwork as Christmas gifts.
"Every year our clients receive the same type of corporate Christmas gift, which is usually a boutique gift or a wine and cheese basket," said Lyman Daniels, vice president and executive director of Hines in Mexico and Central America.
"We wanted to figure out a better way to spend the money we have budgeted for Christmas gifts, but still show our clients and partners that we appreciate them and are thinking about them," Daniels said. "I believe this year´s gifts will have a much deeper impact on our partners than gifts that they can afford to buy themselves," he added.
Daniels and others at Hines Interests challenged other companies to launch similar projects this season.
ANOTHER WORLD
"Many people who work in these multinational companies don´t know this world exists," said Cecilia García Núñez, Hines senior controller who helped coordinate the project. "And if they know it exists, they don´t understand it."
That world includes an estimated 14,000 street children in central Mexico City, according to the Casa Ecuador, also known as Fundación Renacimiento. Thirty percent of street children live in the central Cuauhtémoc precinct, where Casa Ecuador is located.
There are countless more children who are in precarious family situations and are at risk of leaving their homes, said José Vallejo Flores, the shelter´s director.
The foundation has operated under its current name since 1997, funded by private and corporate donations. It is called Casa Ecuador because of its location on Callejón de Ecuador, near the rough Tepito neighborhood. The shelter´s goal is to reinsert street youth into society by giving them the skills necessary to be a productive member of society.
This is achieved through drug rehabilitation, psychological support and educational, recreational activities and career-building workshops.
For Vallejo, the work requires long hours. He often goes out to the streets at 3 a.m. with tamales or other goodies and distributes them to street children. He invites them to the house, in hopes they´ll take the first steps to changing their lives.
"I already know that they are strong," Vallejo said. "They´ve survived the street, and that´s not easy."
After more than a decade of working with street children, he also believes that they are some of the most creative people he´s met.
"They have to be," he said. "Many left their homes to create another reality."
Children and staff at the foundation are hopeful of the future - the money from the children´s artwork will go towards renovating the 16th century home where the youths are sheltered and beefing up resources. This will include the construction of a bakery area and a space for a staff dentist to work.
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
Cruz said he hopes art projects and activities like the one with Hines Interests help change the way society thinks of street children and former street children.
"They need to know that we exist .that just because we´ve been on the street, it doesn´t mean that we can´t do anything," he said. "All of us have skills and potential to do something. It´s just that not all of us know how to develop those skills."
He added that many think that street children don´t have parents or that their parents don´t love them.
"That´s not always true," he said. "Sometimes things get so desperate that you have to leave."
Now, as he approaches his 18th birthday, Cruz knows he will have to leave Casa Ecuador soon.
"Lined up behind me there are many more children that need help," he said.
While at Casa Ecuador, Cruz has made up for lost time on the street. He has conquered a drug addiction. He´s re-enrolled in school and has about four years to graduate from high school. He´s become a computer whiz, and hopes to pursue that as a profession. But, perhaps most importantly, he´s reconnected with his family once again and is working on a healthier relationship with them.
"I know that when I leave I won´t be alone," Cruz said. "I´ll leave stronger, more mature and with everything I need to be independent."
nancyflores15@yahoo.com |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us