Doctor Spagnolo Annunziata and meninos de rua

1. Why are shopkeepers and companies to hire these death squads children and are not the authorities to take their defence? Why can’t they have a more quiet life?

Death squads work by themselves. They are autonomous and give protection to shopkeepers.
2. Is social status of meninos de rua authorized by the government? Is this parallel to our citizen-mafia-politics connivance?
Meninos de rua are put into a social condition that forces them to live on the street to survive. Those who have illegal activities call these children to use them as couriers and in exchange they give them food or money. The structure is not Statal, it is illegal. There is also weapon traffic, they learn to shoot to defend their territory. Sometimes they are victims of the gangs war, ending in the middle of shootings.
3. How can we change all this?
They belong to poor families, they go on the streets to survive. There are guys that don’t come back home because maybe they live in a violent family and prefer to live on the streets.
4. How are favelas built?
They are built automatically, in the hood, in empty zones, where shacks are built. Poor people, that has nothing in the city, builds its space in the hood.
5. Why this problem of favelas is known in Brazil, while in other nations goes unnoticed? What makes it special in front of the others? The multitude, the range of the problem?
Brazil is frequented a lot and so it has more visibility, moreover it is a democratic State and so you can talk about it. Elsewhere there is no democracy and so we don’t talk about it.
6. Can we say that favelas have by now become indipendent?
No, they are not indipendent. Slowly they join cities, in the hood of cities.
7. From these premises, what has been your experience with street boys?
I have worked with street boys not related to gangs, they lived with their family, they were joined to schools that permitted them to study and to have food.
8. How has the previous choice influenced the choice to become a psychotherapist?
I came to Brazil that I already made a work of coordination between these centres on the behalf of the Catholic Church. My role and my social commitment have changed based on context improvements. I had to change my target because meanwhile the State “got in the way” seriously.
9. What target have you reached with street boys and what was the one you had set?
I didn’t have personal targets, I put myself in the context that was there, I don’t have projects that are mine to carry on, I joined and I contribute to help these guys. I am part of a project that also has connections with Italy.