Mexico City is a place which I really loved the second time that I went there but there is one aspect of spending time in that city which I just find very difficult, and that is the poverty, in particular when it comes to the kids. Now I have absolutely no worries about passing some change on to someone in need, or indeed to buy something from someone who is looking to make a little bit of cash to buy some food, but the street kid thing in Mexico City is quite a difficult one.
Saving
The first heartbreaking thing is that you see these kids and you just want to scoop them up and take them with you to a comfortable place which is safe and where you can give them some love and support. The issue of course is that you cannot do this for everyone, or pretty soon you’d be the head of your own, greatly underfunded orphanage.
To Give or Not to Give
Here is the issue I have when I do see street kids, most of them are not making money for themselves, so when you do give money, it is going towards an adult more than likely, perhaps their parents for drugs, or perhaps their parents for survival, or perhaps it all goes to a head honcho, the truth is that we don’t know. Once you learn that the instinct is that you don’t give any money, because that way you are not funding the problem. The issue which then arises is what happens to those kids when they go back to whoever is using these kids for their sweet faces and shows that they didn’t make very much money, beaten? Worse? I shudder to think.
In some cases however there are kids who are struggling and because their parents are missing or strung out, they have to go to the street to survive, and in those cases it is of course a wonderful thing if you are able to help, the problem is we just don’t know.
Solution
There is no all out solution here and I generally lean towards giving them money in the hope that it goes to them, or I will instead offer to buy them some food or some sweets, anything which puts a little smile on their face. I resent the idea that there are adults who are pimping out these kids simply because they are innocent and they know that this is what evokes the sympathy in people to give money, but I’d rather run the risk of that happening than to run the risk of them asking for money for themselves, and me not give them anything.
What is your attitude towards the street kids and whether or not you should support them?
