Casa Alianza Guatemala - 25th Anniversary
September has been a time of celebration at Casa Alianza. This month Guatemala celebrates its 25th Anniversary, and Nicaragua celebrated their 8th anniversary last month. Amazing achievements and in that time the programmes have grown considerably both in size and the range of services we provide
For twenty-five years Casa Alianza has offered specialised integrated services to children throughout Guatemala, offering them the opportunity to live in a dignified manner. Casa Alianza also works tirelessly to defend the human rights of all children, demanding that the state of Guatemala develops action plans to benefit children and adolescents. It has been and continues to be an extremely difficult task.
Sadly the violence against street children in Honduras and Guatemala continues unabated and we are particularly concerned following a decision in Guatemala to use the military to support the National Police. As a result we have experienced an increase of harassment and beatings of street children and our street educators being targeted and threatened. Please continue to send the campaigning actions on the last page, it is vitally important.
Recently I had the opportunity to meet with the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman Dr Sergio Alvarando and his delegation at the Guatemala Embassy in London to express our concerns about the upsurge in violence against street children. I was somewhat encouraged in that he knew the specific details of the recent cases and was working with Casa Alianza Guatemala.
He spoke at length about the very tragic overall situation of children in Guatemala and the fact that the Children’s Code had been adopted but was not being implemented. 51 % of the population are children under the age of 18 and they have little or no prospects. It’s a very bleak outlook indeed and for street children without organisations like Casa Alianza they would have no help, no options and no future!
The Ombudsman paid tribute to our work and stated that, “if it were not for Casa Alianza many more children would have been killed” How very true. Sadly we know the names of all the children who have lost their lives to the streets but we may never know those whose lives have been saved by our intervention and your continued and invaluable support.
We need additional funds, the more children we help the greater the need. If you can, please help.
With thanks and appreciation
Fred Shortland
Casa Alianza Guatemala 25th Anniversary
Casa UK Trustee Sheila Royce will be representing us at the celebrations to be held in Antigua from September 26th to the 28th when a host of exciting activities and celebrations are planned.
Sheila, recently appointed as Chair of the Consortium for Street Children’s Working Group on Violence, has a wealth of experience as an Amnesty campaigner and will take the opportunity whilst in Guatemala to explore how we in the UK can strengthen our support efforts
Birthday Appeal
Thank you to all of you who responded to our Birthday Appeal for Guatemala. To date we have raised £1,500, which, whilst modest, has kick started our project proposed by Trustee Poonam Sattee. The funds are already in Guatemala putting big smiles on children’s faces…thank you.
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