Published on 14 December 2006

It is also very difficult to convince street kids to leave all they know and live under rules. Rosie and her team work to find kids susceptible to take the big step toward a better life. She has created SAMMA (Sociedade de Apoio dos Meninos, Meninas e Adolescetes - Society for the support of children and adolescents). We discovered SAMMA through a Luxembourgian NGO "Street children Sao Paulo."

Rosie discuses problems with Wesley and collegues.

A Luxembourgian architect, Chrëscht Cornette, was working in Sao Paulo for two years and was appalled by the hundreds of street children he saw. He met others including Rosie Nascimiento who were doing something about this tragedy. When Chrëscht got back home in Luxembourg, he got some friends together to create their own NGO in order to gather funds for SAMMA.

SAMMA now has a house in the center of the city and a Brazilian family donated a small farm on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. When children come into SAMMA, they go to the farm house where two social workers help them to learn how to live in society. They have a place to play, to be kids again. But they must also help each other and do their part of the daily work.

Wesley at the house in the city center.

The innovative part of SAMMA is that this is a home to the kids. They don't have to leave and can stay until they are ready to be fully independent. At 18, they can go to the house in the center where they live with others and can study or work. Rosie and the other psychologists make at least weekly visits to iron out problems and make sure everything is running smoothly.

To learn more, look at the articles by our journalists and photographers and have a look at the budget Pix-Aid is trying to raise for SAMMA. To help out, see the Participate page!