The goal of Casa Alianza is to get children to leave the streets voluntarily and to enter one of several programs aimed at drug rehabilitation, education, and a safer life. In January a drug rehabilitation center opened to provide treatment for serious addicts. Crack cocaine addiction is less of a problem than glue addiction, but it is having some impact, mostly among older children. The youths that mention use of this drug are between 16 and 18 years old. And they are youths that usually have gone to other countries, especially Guatemala.
Most children turn to the streets because of abuse or abandonment.
The economic pressures brought on by Hurricane Mitch have led to an increase in children working as vendors, and many of them end up running away. My family life wasn't bad. I got drawn to the streets by my friends. But really they weren't my friends. Matute spent three years, from age 6 to 9, on the Tegucigalpa streets before being accepted into a shelter five years ago.