INTRODUCTION
The "Victory Center" is a
ministry to street girls in Morelia, Mexico. Most commonly,
the girls received by this ministry were previously in the
care of their mothers, who themselves were prostitutes and who
forcibly put the girls into prostitution at a very young age
to generate income for the family. In other cases, the girls
began living on the streets because they were orphaned,
abandoned, or abused and had no place else to go; invariably,
prostitution then became their principal means of survival.
The Victory Center is the only long-term residential program
in Morelia caring specifically for the needs of such girls.
The project was born out of a
realization that evangelism of street girls cannot be
effective in changing the girls' lives unless facilities exist
where the girls can live and rehabilitate their lives
independent of the streets. By first caring for the girls'
physical needs and by eliminating their dependency on
prostitution as a means of support and survival, the Victory
Center then seeks to meet the emotional, intellectual, and
spiritual needs of the girls in a safe environment apart from
the streets. Through Christian counseling, discipleship,
education, and vocational training, the project will help the
girls become self-sufficient and reintegrate them into their
community as independent and mature Christian adults.
Sue Leak, a missionary with
Latin American Mission, is a co-founder of the Victory Center.
Sue has about 10 years of experience working with street
children in Latin America, first in Peru and then in Mexico.
Arms of Love partnered with Sue Leak and the Victory Center
beginning in May 2000 to help raise awareness of the project,
provide financial and other resources needed to complete the
facilities and operate the project, and facilitate the sending
of short-term teams and other personnel to work with the
project.
After the Victory Center's
first year of operation, we realized in mid-2003 that
receiving "hard core" street girls on an exclusive basis
creates a very difficult living environment. The result was an
unexpectedly difficult struggle to retain both the street
girls and the residential staff. In order to create a more
stable living environment, and to increase the retention rate
of both girls and staff, we decided to expand the program to
also receive more "marginal" street girls: girls who need a
long-term place to stay due to abandonment or abuse, but who
have not yet fallen into full-time life on the streets and
prostitution. The focus of the program remains the "hard core"
street girls that we originally set out to serve; however, by
receiving a combination of "marginal" street girls and "hard
core" street girls, we have created a more stable living
environment for the girls we want to reach. Moreover, with
this new combination of children living at the home, the
program is beginning to more closely resemble the children's
homes we support in other countries.
MORELIA, MEXICO
Morelia is a city of more than
one million people, located in the high desert about four
hours west of Mexico City. Morelia is growing rapidly, as
people move into the city from nearby ranches and small towns,
looking for a better way of life. However, without the
education or the vocational skills needed to make an adequate
living in the city, the majority of people quickly slip into
extreme poverty.
The street children in Morelia
are in constant motion, always trying to avoid being picked up
by government officials and detained in delinquent centers or
adult jails. The government views such children as
"distasteful" and "a hazard to the tourist trade." Although
the government has instituted some programs to help these
children, the programs are only offered during the day and do
not go beyond meeting some of the basic physical needs of the
children. On some occasions, the government has actually
removed such children from the streets during holidays and the
tourist season and has dropped them off in other cities. More
commonly, the government simply locks them up. But the
children need far more: they need love, care, guidance, and
protection.
FOUR LEVELS OF MINISTRY
When fully developed, the
Victory Center will minister to street girls at four different
levels:
Street Ministry:
Going out into the streets and meeting the girls on their
turf, sharing the gospel with them and building relationships
with them.
Drop-in Center:
A facility where street children can bathe, eat, receive
medical care, and attend various classes. This gives us the
opportunity to develop a relationship with the children on our
turf, in an environment we control.
Transition Home:
A residential facility where street girls can live on a
temporary basis once they have decided that they want to
change their lives. At this facility, the girls will adjust to
a structured living environment; rehabilitate from drug
addictions (e.g., inhalants such as shoe glue); develop
long-range goals; and become inspired to live a healthy and
productive life.
Children's Home:
A complex of multiple, physically distinct homes, with each
home accommodating a live-in staff and 8 girls. Girls will
move into these homes following a successful stay in the
transition home. The goal of the Children's Home is to provide
the girls with a long-term family environment in which to be
nurtured and loved, while they work toward complete
independence and self-sufficiency as adults.
At the present time, the
ministry only includes the first, third and fourth levels.
Relationships with the girls are being built through street
evangelism and field work. The staff then works to gain
custody of girls who meet the admission criteria of the
ministry and who want to change their lives. Once custody is
obtained, the girls move into the spacious residential
facility that we helped construct on the outskirts of Morelia.
This facility currently serves as the ministry's transition
home, but at the same time, it also serves as our "children's
home" on an interim basis.
Now that the first group of
girls have moved into the current facility and have become
well-adjusted to their new living environment, we are looking
to rent and staff a single-family house that can serve as the
permanent residence for this first group of girls, i.e., the
permanent "children's home." Ultimately, the "children's home"
may consist of multiple rented homes in the community or a
complex of homes that we build. Accordingly, when the entire
vision reaches its full maturity, the current facility will
serve as the transition home, a house in downtown Morelia will
function as a drop-in center, and one or more single-family
homes in the community will serve as the permanent "children's
home.
THE NEED FOR A GIRLS'
HOME
When Sue Leak and her team
first began ministering to street girls in Morelia, many girls
came to faith in Christ and wanted to change their lives.
However, Sue's team did not have a residential facility in
which to place the girls. As a result, the girls were unable
to extract themselves from the lifestyle they were trapped in.
Either they depended upon prostitution as a means of survival,
or they were being forced to engage in prostitution while
still living at home and had no where else to go. When the
girls found themselves unable to leave their situation and
start a new life, they viewed Sue and her team as being like
everyone else: all talk, but no action. Wounded again, the
girls would return to their previous lifestyle and become even
more hardened and cynical than they were before.
Through this experience, Sue
discovered a sobering reality: evangelism, by itself, is
ineffective in changing these girls' lives. They need a home.
Unfortunately, there are very
few programs and facilities in Morelia - and in other Latin
American cities - that will receive adolescent-age street
girls, because they are more difficult to care for and
rehabilitate than other categories of street children. Even a
typical adolescent can be moody and difficult; a teenager who
has been used and abused is much more so. They are often
emotional, angry, selfish, and aggressive, because they are
scared, hurt and confused.
Adolescent girls pose a range
of issues more complex and difficult than adolescent boys. For
example:
- Street girls as young as 8
or 9 years old begin turning to prostitution as a means of
survival. Accordingly, street girls become the object of
varying types of sexual violence and abuse.
- Due to the lack of birth
control, prostitution eventually culminates in premature
pregnancies, the lack of pre-natal care, clandestine
self-induced abortions, and/or the birth of infants in
desperate circumstances.
- Street girls, like other
street children, are typically addicted to inhalants such as
shoe glue. Continued drug use during pregnancy can result in
the babies being stillborn or suffering from other serious
health issues, such as seizures and organ failures.
- Prostitution results in a
high incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases.
- "Protectors" exercise
considerable physical and emotion control over street girls.
A street girl often becomes attached to her "protector," who
has convinced her that she is unlovable and he is the only
one who will truly love her and protect her.
- In Latin American culture,
street girls suffer from far greater rejection by society
(compared to boys). The culture also presents the girls with
an economic disadvantage. Because they are scorned by the
culture, if they eventually marry, their spouse will often
be abusive, and the cycle of violence will continue.
By establishing a home for
street girls, the Victory Center will satisfy an acute need
and will focus on the unique problems and issues that confront
such girls. In the course of - or as the result of - its
ministry, the Victory Center will also be preventing
premature, unwanted pregnancies, and will help preserve the
lives of children that have already been conceived.
PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES
Our philosophy is based on the
principle that God Himself is the great physician. With his
mercy, compassion, and love, He heals the broken hearted and
the outcast from the inside out.
Josh McDowell says that every
person is born with three indwelling needs: the need to be
loved, the need to be accepted, and the need to contribute to
something that is bigger than themselves. True love and
acceptance comes from God and from God alone. The girls need
to know that they are loved and lovable, which can only come
from experiencing the love of God. Having experienced this
love, they will then be able to love others in a healthy way.
The principle objectives of the
project are as follows:
- To meet the physical needs
of the girls, so we can then touch their emotional and
spiritual needs.
- To help every girl clearly
understand the plan of salvation and the personal
relationship that Jesus wants to have with them.
- To provide the girls with
the basic education, vocational skills, and other life
skills necessary to become independent, self-sufficient
members of the community.
- To help the girls develop a
healthy sense of self-worth, based on their value to God,
and a security in who they are. The girls need to learn how
to value themselves as children of God rather than valuing
themselves according to how people have treated them.
- To provide the girls with a
place of refuge - a place where the girls are loved and
accepted, even by those who know their background.
- To help each girl recognize
and realize her fullest potential. We want each girl to
understand that God created her with a very specific plan in
mind.
- To help each girl discover
her own God-given gifts and talents, and inspire her to use
those abilities to serve others and to serve Christ.
- To help each girl heal from
the acts which have been committed against her and accept
responsibility for the acts which she has committed against
others.
- To help the girls learn and
understand:
- That they are beautifully
and wonderfully made by God.
- That sex is not love, but
should be an expression of love that is done only within
the bounds of marriage.
- What good, godly, and
healthy relationships should look like.
ACCEPTANCE INTO THE
PROGRAM
All girls
within the program must want to be there. Success ultimately
depends upon the motivation and aspiration of the girls
themselves, as they will not change if they do not want to.
Upon entrance into the program, the rules and expectations of
the girls will be explained to them and they will be asked to
sign an agreement saying that they are willingly entering into
the home and understand that their duration in the home
depends upon them. If they do not follow the rules and do
their part, their conduct will demonstrate a lack of desire to
participate in the program. The staff will provide each girl
three chances to demonstrate that they want to participate in
the program. If there is no progress, the girls will have
broken their contract with the home and will have to leave the
facilities. The type of behavior that would warrant such
action would include: sexual advances toward other children in
the home or members of the staff; continued swearing,
stealing, smoking, drinking, or drugs; running away; refusing
to attend school; or refusing to participate in the life of
the home.
If a girl does drop out of the program
(something that is fairly common in the transition home), they
will be welcomed back into the program when there is an
opening in the program and will be given another chance. Our
experience is that street girls will often need three
opportunities before they settle into the program and really
make a go of it.
THE TRANSITION HOME
In early 2002, we began receiving
girls into a transition home in downtown Morelia. This home,
located only a few blocks from where much of the prostitution
occurs, included a kitchen, three bedrooms downstairs, and
four additional bedrooms upstairs.
The transition home is a temporary
residence where the girls first live when they make a decision
to leave their current circumstances and change their lives.
The transition home is designed to be a highly structured
facility where nearly every moment of the day is occupied with
a planned activity. At this facility, the girls adjust to a
structured living environment and learn to live in a setting
with rules and requirements of respecting the people around
them. The girls also rehabilitate from drug or alcohol
addictions; develop long-range goals; and become inspired to
live a healthy and productive life. The amount of time spent
in the transition home depends on the needs of the girls and
the type of addictions that they have. An average stay of 3 to
6 months is expected in the transition home.
In order to focus our existing staff
and resources, the original transition home was closed in the
fall of 2002 when the initial group of girls moved to the
current residential facility. I n the future, when our
programs become more fully developed and are well-staffed, we
plan to re-open a location in downtown Morelia to serve as a
"drop-in center" that can form an important part of our
outreach to children living on the streets.
THE CHILDREN’S HOME
After the girls complete a successful
stay in the transition home, they move to the children's
home. A spacious two-story residential facility on the
outskirts of Morelia is serving as the initial children's
home. The children's home is less structured than the
transition home, and there is a higher focus on the long-term
emotional and spiritual needs of the children. Each girl is
required to participate in household activities and chores, as
well as attending school and church. The goal of the
children's home is to provide the girls with a long-term
family environment in which to be nurtured and loved, until
they can be reintegrated into the community as independent,
self-sufficient adults.
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Facilities
The current children’s home is a
two-story, 6300 square-foot facility that will accommodate
about 30-36 girls as well as staff. The facility includes
living quarters for the girls and the staff; a kitchen; a
dining area; study areas; a library; and classrooms that can
be used for sewing or computer training.
The current facility is being
operated on a cell-group model. A full-time, live-in female
worker and one female assistant will care for each
cell-group of 5 or girls. A couple will serve as directors
of the facility and will also live on the premises in their
own quarters.
In the near future, we intend to
rent a single family house to serve as the first permanent
"children's home." Once this phase is completed, the
existing facility will begin serving as the "transition
home" and we may eventually reopen a third location in
downtown Morelia to function as a drop-in center for street
children.
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Staff
The staff of the current residential facility is still
being developed. When completed, the staff will include:
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A couple who will serve as
directors of the entire facility. The directors will
oversee the operation of the facility, the staff, the
admission of girls into the program, and the care of the
girls living in the home.
-
Women caretakers, each of whom
will care for a cell group of 5-6 girls with the help of
one full-time female assistant.
-
A Christian psychologist and a
social worker, who will help the girls heal from their
past wounds and accept responsibility for their past
conduct. The psychologist and social worker will assist
the other staff in establishing an individualized program
for the development of each girl and will evaluate each
girl's progress. The social worker will also interface
with the government.
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Other personnel for cooking meals,
cleaning, doing laundry, and maintaining the facility and
grounds.
-
Tutors who will assist the girls
in their education and in vocational training.
When a third location is developed
as the permanent children’s home, that program will follow
the model used by other children's homes sponsored by Arms
of Love in Nicaragua and in the Philippines. The permanent
children’s home will consist of multiple, physically
distinct homes, each of which will accommodate a live-in
staff and up to 8 girls, who will function as a family unit.
It is uncertain, at this time, to
what extent - or in what manner - couples will be integrated
into the staff of the permanent children’s home. Due to the
age and the background of the girls being ministered to, it
may not be wise to have a man living in each home, in close
proximity with the girls. The current plan is to have two
full-time female caretakers living in each home with up to 8
girls, and have one or more couples living in separate
quarters on the same property or nearby. This would provide
a certain degree of separation between male staff and the
girls, while still providing the girls with a positive male
role model (and a model of healthy male-female
relationships) and appropriate, fatherly affection. This
approach will be re-evaluated over time.
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Education
The girls will attend public school
when possible or be tutored in the home. The initial group
of girls received by the ministry was tutored in the home
until the start of the next school year, at which time they
were eligible for integration into the public school system.
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Vocational training
One of the principal objectives of
the project is to provide the girls with a basic education
and vocational training, so they will be able to support
themselves apart from prostitution. Accordingly, the project
will offer the girls various options including sewing
classes, cooking classes, and computer training.
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Recreational activities
Recreational activities are
important for the overall emotional and intellectual health
of the girls and their development. Accordingly, the project
will offer the girls a variety of recreational
opportunities, including dance classes, music and choir
lessons, and different sports activities.
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Family Reunification
Some of the girls are removed from
their homes by the government due to abuse, e.g., where the
mother has been using her daughter in prostitution or where
the father has been sexually abusing his daughter. In such
situations, the staff of the project also ministers to the
family and will work toward reconciliation and reunification
where feasible.
Of the first seven children received
by the ministry, for example, two girls
were reintegrated with their families. In one case,
reunification became feasible when the father who was
abusing the girl was incarcerated in prison. In the other
case, the mother had left her daughter in the care of
relatives while she moved to another city to obtain
employment, and unfortunately, the relatives did not care
for the girl and she began to live on the streets. This
situation was able to be rectified when the government
provided financial assistance that enabled the mother to
move back to Morelia and begin caring for her daughter
again.
