by Tobias Hecht

Based on innovative fieldwork among street children who play, steal, sleep, dance, and die in the streets of a Brazilian city.

"This work achieves something very special: the children themselves set the frame and limits of the otherwise inevitable and predictable outsider's sympathetic discourse on their plight. Never in ethnography has the agency of the subject's voice been so creatively present; never have the stories of such children, who partly stand for contemporary Brazil, been so plainly compelling." George Marcus, Rice University

• Format: Paperback, 267pp.
• ISBN: 0521598699
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pub. Date: June 1998
• Other Formats: Hardcover

A film by Walter Salles with Fernanda Montenegro, Vinícius de Oliveira, et al.

Amazon
In the opening scenes of Central Station, colorful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. When we first meet Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), this frozen-hearted, sour-faced woman is the epitome of immobility: day after day, she sits in the train station selling her letter-writing skills to all comers, but often doesn't bother to mail these precious messages. When a woman who's paid Dora to write a pleading note to her son's long-missing dad gets run over by a bus, the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), is up for grabs. (The summary execution of a thieving street kid--in longshot--underscores the seriousness of this waif's plight.) After an abortive attempt to sell Josue for a new TV, the aspiring couch potato finds herself reluctantly propelled into an occasionally Fellini-esque odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil's sertäo, where Dora and her sidekick find unexpected faith and family. Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles (Foreign Land) mixes magic with realism in his appreciation of striking faces and places, but Central Station is primarily fueled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judy Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. (Montenegro was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and Central Station was in the running for Best Foreign Language Film.) No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion--and emotion--is potent pleasure, even if Salles's trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down.

Edition Details:

• NTSC format (US and Canada only)
• Subtitles in English
• Color, Dolby, NTSC
• ASIN: 0767819543
• Other Formats: DVD

A film by Hector Babenco with Fernando Ramos Da Silva, Jorge Juliano and Gilberto Moura

From Barnes & Noble
A gritty, thoroughly unsentimental depiction of homeless children in 1981 Brazil, Pixote (favorably translated from Portuguese as "Pee-wee") aims to grab audiences by the throat -- and succeeds. Shot in documentary style by director Hector Babenco (Kiss of the Spider Woman) using nonprofessional actors, Pixote enters a juvenile institution where abandoned, drug-addicted, marginalized street boys languish, subject to abuse by authorities and sometimes by each other. We meet ten-year-old Pixote (Fernando Ramos da Silva), who emerges from this hell only to face the challenge of survival on the streets of São Paulo. Pixote succeeds as penetrating social commentary while never losing its emotional grip. Particularly spectacular are the scenes between Pixote and a prostitute (played brilliantly by Marilia Pera) that uncomfortably capture the child's uneasy mix of sexual precocity and desperate hunger for mothering. Unforgettable, razor sharp, and poignant, the critique remains every bit as topical now as the day it was made. In 1987, police in Rio de Janiero fatally shot da Silva, the young performer who made the title character so heartrending -- a tragic, real-life coda to this devastating film. Karen Backstein

• Original release date: 1981
• Video/DVD Release Date: 6/5/2001
• UPC: 717119404048

by Sarah de Carvalho

One Woman's remarkable story of her personal experiences working with street children in Brazil.

• Format: Paperback, 229pp.
• ISBN: 0340641649
• Publisher: Hodder Headline PLC
• Pub. Date: September 1996

Walter De Oliveira (Editor)

From Booknews
As a Brazilian psychiatrist known for his advocacy for homeless kids on Rio de Janeiro streets (some are pictured), de Oliveira (public health, Lutheran U. of Brazil) traces this phenomenon and street workers' social education role in the context of a history of oppression, the economic legacy of the "Brazilian miracle," the country's youth policy, Freire's pedagogy, and liberation theology. Despite the worsening problem, the author concludes that "one paradox of suffering is that it can foster creativity to overcome."

• Format: Hardcover, 250pp.
• ISBN: 0789011549
• Publisher: Haworth Press, Incorporated, The
• Pub. Date: October 2000

by Ineke Holtwijk

A raw, poignant story of a band of Brazilian street kids who survive -- if they can -- by their wits alone. Asphalt Angels centers around a boy named Alex, a street child of 13 in Brazil who has been kicked onto the city streets by his stepfather after his mother dies. He is alone and scared. This is the story of how he adapts to life in the streets with a group of other children. Hazards are everywhere: drug-dealing, theft, glue-sniffing, harassment, brutality, even murder. It is not easy steering clear of them, yet Alex manages to survive, eventually making a home with 14 other boys in a house, working in an office, and attending evening school. This story grew from the real-life drama the author observed while on assignment. In an afterword, she reports that some 10,000 children sleep in Rio's streets, and many more roam them by day, victims of inadequate nutrition, education, and shelter, and prey to drugs and violence. Alex does exist, but under another name.

(Click here to read an excerpt.)

• Hardcover - 192 pages
• Pub. Date: April 1, 1999)
• Publisher: Front Street
• ISBN: 1886910243

Human Rights Watch, Americas Staff / Paperback / Human Rights Watch / February 1994

• Format: Paperback, 160pp.
• ISBN: 1564321231
• Publisher: Human Rights Watch
• Pub. Date: February 1994

by Marjorie Mayers

From the Publisher
"Street Kids and Streetscapes: Panhandling, Politics, and Prophecies explores the experience of kids living on the street. It is an original, insightful, and provocative hermeneutic examination of street kids' participation in panhandling and the complexities that emerge as various economic, political, and social values converge and conflict in the urban landscape. This book illuminates how panhandling acts as the embodiment of the experiences of street life for kids as well as how the streetscape functions as the interface between street kids and the mainstream. Investigating the geographies where various meanings are connected to living in the margins, on the brink, as the "other," this book also explores kids' visions for the future and invites us to re-imagine how our lives are connected to each other, to them, and to the place we call "the street."

From Booknews
Viewing the streetscape as the interface between street kids and mainstream society in this hermeneutic research approach, a scholar with a Ph.D. in counseling/educational psychology from the U. of Calgary shares her insights on the experience of homeless youth based on hard-to-earn conversations with them and their service providers.

• Format: Paperback, 180pp.
• ISBN: 0820452181
• Publisher: Lang, Peter Publishing, Incorporated
• Pub. Date: February 2001

by John Hagan, Bill McCarthy

From the Publisher
Mean Streets is a field study of young people who have left home and school and are living on the streets of Toronto and Vancouver. This book includes the personal narratives and explanatory accounts, in their own words, of some of the more than four hundred young people who participated in the summer-long study, which featured intensive personal interviews. The study examines why youth take to the streets, their struggles to survive on the street, their victimization and involvement in crime, their associations with other street youth, especially within "street families," their contacts with the police, and their efforts to leave the street and rejoin conventional society. Major theories of youth crime are analyzed and reappraised in the context of a new social capital theory of crime.

Read more about this book HERE.

• Format:Textbook Paperback, 299pp.
• ISBN: 052164626X
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pub. Date: July 1998

by Marlene Webber

Synopsis
The author examines the situation of runaway children in Canada. The work includes interviews with street children, sections on such issues as drugs, sexual abuse, and family violence, and commentary by Canadian educators and social workers.

• Format: Paperback, 416pp.
• ISBN: 0802067050
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Pub. Date: December 1991

by Lewis Aptekar

Sensitive, well-documented account of street children.

Reviewer: A reader from St. Louis, Missouri, USA
The material for this book came from an ethnographic and psychological study of street children in Cali. Colombia. While the detailed report of the results of the children's psychological tests may be of little interest to the general reader, the description of their daily lives is vivid and engaging. What becomes evident is that the children are resourceful, determined, and loyal to each other in their daily struggles. In one passage the author trails two boys who borrow a ladder and then rent it for a small fee to visitors to the cemetery (the visitors use the ladder to put flowers into raised crypts). The boys visit restaurant and store owners for leftovers and then carefully sort, trade, sell, or consume what they receive. Aptekar makes two essential points about street children. First, they often "choose" to leave home, either to escape deplorable conditions or to experience the freedom of the street or both. Second, the children are inventive, industrious, and goal-oriented in their survival strategies.

• Hardcover (September 1988)
• Duke Univ Pr (Txt); ISBN: 0822308347

by Nancy Leigh Tierney

An in-depth look at the daily abuse endured by homeless children on Guatemala's streets, as witnessed by a Peace Corps volunteer.

Nancy Leigh Tierney has written an extraordinary and memorable book about the life of street children in Guatemala. These are children whose innocence has been shattered, yet somehow they remain dignified. The testimonies of their lives in the streets urges us not to remain silent to their tragedy, which is very much part of our own. ROBBED OF HUMANITY should be read by everyone interested in human rights, social justice and hope.

• Format: Paperback, 280pp.
• ISBN: 0963018051
• Publisher: Pangaea Publishing
• Pub. Date: September 1997

Human Rights Watch, Children's Rights Project Staff Human Rights Watch, Americas Staff

• Format: Paperback, 136pp.
• ISBN: 1564322130
• Publisher: Human Rights Watch
• Pub. Date: July 1997

A film by Director/producer/writer Ron Becks and Director/cinematographer/Editor Young Man Kang

We are proud to announce the World Premiere of an explosively revealing film documentary on the heart-wrenching subject of children abandoned to the streets of Haiti. This is a most unique expose of the world's 'dirty little secret' --modern day child slavery, severe abuse and the resulting loss of childhood for thousands of children.

Director/producer/writer Ron Becks and Director/cinematographer/Editor Young Man Kang combined their award-winning talents to create this phenomenal documentary to draw attention to the plight of the street kids of Haiti. The film has a soundtrack of authentic Haitian roots music by the Grammy-nominated group, Boukman Eksperyans.

Executive producer Jeanette Lawrence, of Huntington Beach,California, was inspired to fund this effort after becoming aware of the life-endangering work being performed by a courageous rescue team, headed by an American from Corpus Christi, Texas, Michael Brewer, R.N.

Mr. Brewer is the compassionate director of Haitian Street Kids, Inc., (a non-profit organization) which has opened an orphanage, Family Circle Home for Boys, in Port au Prince. There the children are sheltered in a secure, loving environment where they are provided the opportunity to both enjoy their childhood and to get a quality education to help prepare them for the future.

Video Now Available!

by Rodney Shane Clark, Kyle Schroeder (Illustrator), Elizabeth Sabatino (Photographer)

From the Publisher

Positive Press International is an independent publishing company whose goal is advocacy for the world's poor. Their desire is to bring the needs of the poor into public view, cautiously, so as not to exploit the marginalized. When I Grow Up is a profound and poignant testimony to the worthiness of this goal. Eighty-three duotone photographs showcase the beauty, dignity, hope and poverty of India's street children. These pictures are not only excellent examples of photography; they are also a document of life among the impoverished children of the world and a compelling and irresistable call to help and compassion.

The authors of this project ask you to consider an attitudinal and behavioral change of response to the poor in the world. With a personal letter of challenge to the author from Mother Teresa, When I Grow Up is a window of hope into the difficult lives of India's street children.

• Format: Paperback, 144pp.
• ISBN: 0966098005
• Publisher: Positive Press International
• Pub. Date: June 1999

The film

Salaam Bombay is an excellent portrayal of a slice-of-life in India's urban settlements. It tells the story of one boy's life in the streets.

"After I witnessed New Delhi's urban environment a year ago, Salaam Bombay serves as an ideal example of the lack of human basic needs in India. This film is full of common themes in India's less developed cities: migration, poverty, and employment, etc... This film is great! No other film captures India's true urban situation."

A beautifully made and touching film.

Reviewer: Tony Martinez
This is fantastic! Great music, Great story, Awesome photography! I promise you will love this film.

Click HERE to read the review by Roger Ebert

• Format: VHS NTSC

by Dario Mitidieri, Firdaus Kanga, Peter Dalgleish

Some 30,000 children are homeless in Bombay; living on its streets, under bridges, in railway stations, anywhere they can to escape harrassment by both police and criminals. Considered a nuisance and with no rights, they are at best ignored by the majority of people. Sexual exploitation, drug addiction and criminal gangs make this a cruelly hazardous background for these young people.

About the Author
In 1991 Mitidieri won the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant enabling him to work throughout 1992 on the street children of Bombay. Other major awards including New Photographer of the Year in the British Press Awards, the Visa d'Or at Perpignan International Festival of Photojournalism, and the Fotografia La Nacion prize in Buenos Aires.

*Twenty of the superb photos in this book can be seen at The Railway Children site for street children.
**More photos and an interview with Dario Mitidieri Here

• Hardcover
• (July 1995)
• Distributed Art Publishers
• ISBN: 1899235000

by Catherine Panter-Brick, Malcolm Smith (Editor)

Table of Contents

• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Preface

1. Nobody's children? A reconsideration of child abandonment
2. Circulation of children in eighteenth-century Portugal
3. The lives of foundlings in nineteenth-century Italy
4. Modelling the economic and human costs of foundling care in the Azores
5. Five centuries of foundling history in Florence: changing patterns of abandonment, care mortality
6. 'Borrowed Children' in the Greek civil war
7. Children separated from their families in the Mozambique war
8. Psychological perspectives of 'abandoned' and 'abandoning' street children
9. In search of Brazil's street children
10. A comparative perspective on children's 'careers' and abandonment in Nepal
11. Abandonment and child prostitution in a Thai slum community
12. Seen but not heard: refugee children and models for intervention
13. Children of protracted exile: where do we belong?
14. Index

• Format: Paperback, 248pp.
• ISBN: 0521775558
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pub. Date: July 2000

by Duncan Green
Exploring the lives of the street children of Latin America through their own eyes and voices, Hidden Lives builds on the concept of children's rights enshrined in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Through interviews with children across the continent, as well as teachers, welfare workers and other adults involved in their lives, Green argues forcefully that child participation is both a fight and a necessity if child-centered social programs are to succeed. More broadly, harnessing the energy of children could help the region tackle pressing environmental and social problems.

A brief excerpt from this book may be seen HERE(Scroll down to the bottom of the page).

• Format: Hardcover, 224pp.
• ISBN: 0304336890
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group, Incorporated
• Pub. Date: October 1998

Stan Grossfeld Mother Teresa Muhammad Ali

From the Publisher
Lost Futures: Our Forgotten Children is a moving chronicle by photographer/writer Stan Grossfeld - a two-time Pulitzer-prize winner - who has traveled from Los Angeles to India, from Brazil to Thailand, documenting the precarious living conditions facing the children of the world's poor. As this book shows us, there is hope for these children - if we are willing to take action. Lost Futures contains fifteen powerful photographic essays, each detailing the harsh realities of these young lives with a report that is brutal yet deeply affecting. Each essay delves into the everyday horrors faced by millions of children. From the often overlooked problems in our own backyards (child abuse, gang warfare, child prostitution, and hunger), to distressing global problems (famine, the AIDS crisis in Romania, child slavery, and the devastating effects of warfare), Grossfeld never lets us forget that the solutions are often simple when implemented.

From Booknews
Fifteen powerful photographic essays detail the harsh realities of young lives in the US and elsewhere (Haiti, Africa, India, Romania) conveying the impact of child abuse, gang warfare, child prostitution, hunger, disease, and poverty. Black-and-white photos printed full page or in spreads show what no one wants to see, and the text describes horrifying conditions and background. Writer/photographer Grossfeld will donate 100 percent of his royalties to the US Committee for UNICEF.

• Format: Hardcover, 184pp.
• ISBN: 0893816965
• Publisher: Aperture Foundation, Incorporated
• Pub. Date: April 1997
• Edition Desc: 1 ED

by Iain Byrne, Nelson Mandela

From ITDG (Publisher)
The Human Rights of Street and Working Children is a one-stop guide both for experienced advocates and for non-specialists in the field. The manual, which presents information in an accessible question-and-answer format, is divided into three sections for ease of reference. The first section defines substantive rights * survival, fair treatment, and empowerment. The second section provides practical guidelines on how to use regional and international human rights systems such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or the UN Committee on Torture. The third and last section contains a comprehensive list of human rights documents with tables by country detailing the status and the stage in the implementation process of each of the conventions in each country.

• Paperback - 320 pages
• (February 1999)
• Intermediate Technology
• ISBN: 1853394491

Roslyn Arlin Mickelson (Editor) Foreword by Marian Wright Edelman

The number of street children in developed and developing nations is rising, often in the midst of prosperity. These original contributions study and compare the living conditions and educational experiences of homeless children in the United States, Brazil and Cuba.

Because social policy and economic factors are central to these children's plight, Mickelson and her contributors employ a political economy perspective to examine the lives of the children and the educational and social programs-successful and unsuccessful-that are designed to serve them. The book examines formal and informal programs, compares and contrasts children's situations in each country, and offers policy recommendations. Throughout the book, case studies are combined with recent statistical and demographic facts about each country.

• Format: Paperback, 300pp.
• ISBN: 0415923220
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pub. Date: September 1999