From Street to Stage with Children in Brazil and Ghana

Abstract

Children have lived and worked on city streets since time immemorial. But in recent years, free-market policies have led to a growing gap between rich and poor, unprecedented urbanization, and the fracturing of traditional social structures. One result has been the development of entire subcultures made up of children, including many whose family ties have been cruelly cut. Childhood is supposed to be a time of safety, laughter, and learning. But these children lead stunted lives characterized by fear, shame, and discrimination. That they succeed in organizing and fighting back, as they have in Brazil, that they doggedly strive to realize their dreams of betterment, as they do in Ghana, is a wonder. The author's play, When I Meet My Mother, offers a glimpse into the lives of a gang of Brazilian street children in one 24-hour period.