This is Philip Smith, his wife Corenne, and their son Marc. Actually, this photo is out of date since they recently adopted an infant girl, Isabella. It was a big surprise when they got a call 3 months ago with news that "Your baby is ready" since they had applied for adoption 7 years ago and given up that anything would happen. After barely surviving a severe infection for the last 2 months, she just came home and is doing fine now. Philip lived in Ethiopia for the first 13 years of his life as the son of Jack Smith, who founded Hope Enterprises to serve and educate the poor of Ethiopia, especially children. Philip eventually followed in his father's footsteps and founded Hope Unlimited in Brazil.
According to Hope Unlimited, over 7 million kids in Brazil are either homeless or working on the streets most days from home (usually a shack with one or two abusive or neglectful parents). Average survival rate: 2-4 years.
To survive, they have to do whatever it takes – stealing food or clothing, getting involved with gangs, drugs, or prostitution, Many are forced by parents to peddle goods (newspapers, candy, etc.) or services (shoe shining, washing car windows, etc.) on the streets, but then beaten or mistreated if they don't meet their "quota". Starting in the 1980's, thousands of street kids were systematically killed by gunmen (usually off-duty policemen) hired by local business owners as "security" to eradicate a "public nuisance".
Philip founded Hope Unlimited in 1990 to care for the street children of Brazil. Today, Hope Unlimited operates large facilities in Campinas (near Sao Paulo) and Vittoria (north of Rio de Janeiro) that serve about 200 residential boys and girls who live in "families" of 16 children with 2 houseparents for each house. Girls and boys live at separate sites but go to school together during the day, along with about 300 day students who attend classes with them at the Hope schools.
Here are photos of the Campinas and Vittoria sites:
What we saw at Hope in Brazil was radical transformation of children's lives through loving family groups, school, and vocational training to insure they can get jobs when they graduate (as cooks, bakers, auto mechanics, computer operators, hair stylists, graphic artists, etc.).
For example, these boys are Carlos (left) and Bruno (right). Both of Carlos` parents were dead by the time he was 6. Bruno is one of 16 siblings. We didn`t get the whole story (because Hope doesn't like to focus on the children's past), but it sounds like one of his parents shot and killed the other. Tragic stories like this are common at Hope. But these two boys (like every kid we met there) have such a joy of living and hope for the future that you would never guess their past.
We got to spend about a week with Carlos, Bruno, and dozens of other kids in Campinas. One highlight was a special birthday celebration. Philip makes a big deal of birthdays to convey the value of every child. Every kid gets a huge cake (baked by other kids at the school) to share with their house family, plus a celebration day each month for all the kids with recent birthdays. This extravaganza includes a trip to the mall, a video arcade, and a movie, but it's known to all the kids as the "McDonald's" trip because it ends with a trip to McDonald's, which is considered an extravagant luxury to most Brazilians.
All the Hope children were extraordinarily polite and disciplined. All their rooms were simple but spotless, with every bed made to suit a drill sergeant and every piece of clothing neatly folded or hanging in a small closet with nothing else in sight.
Carlos is learning to repair and paint cars. Bruno plays several instruments and wants to be a DJ. Both were friendly, courteous, articulate, and very impressive. As David said, "Who wouldn't want to have kids like this? How could they be abandoned?"
After the kids turn 17, they start jobs and move to a graduate house for at least 6 months as they transition from the highly structured group homes to independent living and professions. There are seperate graduate houses for girls and boys. In Campinas, we got to know Joel, Carlos and Diana, each 17 years old. They start each day at 6am, take a city bus to the Hope School for transition classes from 7-5, bus home for a quick dinner, then go to night school from 7-10 to complete their Brazilian high school requirements. Seeing their dicipline (like every kid we met) showed us that they would break the cycle of of poverty and violence. And seeing their joy of life told us that the family environment Philp has built instills value and hope in every child. These kids are transformed. They know they are capable and loved. To know where these kids started and to see them now is a miracle.
Every staff member has a heart for the kids and has made sacrifices to serve them. People like William, who left law school because he felt Gold calling him to serve Hope kids. Among other jobs, William has served as house parent, computer teacher, house parent coordinator, and music teacher. He`s an amazingly gifted person with a heart of gold and he truly loves the Hope kids. All the houseparents are heroes too, loving 16 Hope kids along with their own children, all of whom they consider family. Every day, these house parents teach kids what it means to be part of a healthy family, complete with chores and dinner together every night.
We fell in love with all the kids we met. Despite their backgorunds, they are open, warm, and loving. Philip assigned us several small work projects that gave us a lot of time to spend with kids.
For example, we organized donated furniture into a "showroom" so the furniture can be sold to raise money. (This also became our much-used "living room" when we needed to take a break during the day.)
We also took photos for next year’s Hope calendar and taught English and Computer classes.
Here are some of the other memories we will never forget:
- Spending time with the Hope kids
- All-you-can-eat Brazilian grilled meats, all-you-can-eat ice cream with over 40 flavors (including burnt coconut… it was good!), and all-you-can-eat pizza with over 50 kinds of pizza (including filet mignon, French fry, Stroganoff, and ice cream pizzas).
- Stopping by the Hope cooking classes several times a day to mooch the mouth-watering food (strawberry tortes, chocolate chip cookies, pizza, coconut cake, ...)
- Going into the slums with Philip to meet a mom with 4 kids who lives in fear that her violent husband will kill her. He just got out of prison for killing a previous wife and mistress. The mom lives in a shack with nothing, but she just agreed to take the boy you see here because his mom abandoned him. The boy seemed terrified and in shock.
- Meeting Canario, the president of a slum neighborhood who is running for City Council. Canario assumed the slum leadership after 9 previous presidents were assassinated because of political corruption. He seemed to us like an authentic Brazilian Cesar Chavez, who is working hard to improve the lives of the poor by bringing education, electricity, and paved roads to the slum.
- Going to the mid-week chapel service with Hope kids and hearing them read Psalm 72 together. Read it yourself and imagine 150 former street kids reading it aloud. It will have new meaning for you.
- Riding in Hope's converted city bus 16 hours from Campinas to Vittoria, in “fully reclining seats” on top of 50 trash bags full of donated clothes. And stopping along the way to spend a half day in Rio de Janeiro to see Cristo Redentor and the famous Ipanema and Copocabana beaches.
- Meeting Ian, Bill, Michael, and Sherry who were visiting Hope to see their programs and consider supporting their efforts through Moody Church in Chicago. They have traveled together before (to India) and were a great picture of a fun, encouraging team.
- Having Philip drive us through a gritty neighborhood where every house is a brothel and where street prosititutes were quite evident even in the late afternoon.
- Seeing David get his hair painfully braided in corn rows by the girls… and then painfully pulled out 24 hours later by the boys...
- Swimming with all the boys
- Steve and Joe getting their hair cut at the Hope cosmetology salon... with Samson, I mean David, holding out ("Get yo hands off my hair.")
- Kissing over 100 women in Brazil... we love the local custom of greeting!
If you want to learn more about Hope Unlimited or support their programs to transform the lives of street kids in Brazil, go to
http://hopeunlimited.org/.
It was heartbreaking to leave and we’re hoping that we can visit these kids again someday.
Here´s a quick pop quiz for our readers: What here does not belong?
And here's a shout-out to Rick Conway... BON DIA!!!
- Steve
