ABSTRACT
The subject matter for this chapter arose from what seemed to be just a practical problem of my ongoing research into ‘children of the street’ in Asuncion, the capital city of Paraguay. The need to know more about the situation, characteristics, feelings and problems in the everyday life of street children arose from an increasing urge to take action on their behalf. The number of street children in Asuncion had started to grow noticeably in the early 1980s and, in 1983, my wife and I and several friends began our research, which set the base for an educational programme aimed at street children. Starting in 1985 this still continues.1 Our research also led to the publication of a book which dealt mainly with children working in the streets who live with their families (Espinola, Glauser et al., 1987). Later difficulties in the educational programme, particularly with those children who also live rather than just work in the streets, made a second phase of research centred on their specificities necessary. Within the framework, then, of a personal, rather informal research project I shall piece together, from practical as well as theoretical sources, the current state of knowledge about street children drawing on the wide range of action which exists-be it practical grassroot level work with street children, advocacy work on their behalf or the definition of global policies in response to the problem which their existence raises.
