If you give a mouse a cookie...

"...he'll ask for a glass of milk".

After getting off the bus in Salvador I (and every other tourist/local adult alike) become the target of between one and six local kids, hands outstretched, tears forming in their eyes.  The scene is pitiful.  They're too skinny, dirty clothes, and "are only asking for a coin, tia, just one coin...".  When the coin is denied (for fear that they'll buy it for drugs), the strategy changes.  "Tia! Wait!  Just buy me a can of powdered milk!".  Well, you think to yourself, a can of milk is food, and food can't buy drugs... so you buy it for them, only to later discover that here, food can buy drugs, and it does.


Here in Salvador, and in other urban centers of Brazil, crack is a huge problem.  It's cheap, it's available, and the dealers accept trades.  In the historic center of the city, there are about 25 street kids, the majority addicted to crack.  My friend, a fellow American now living in Brazil, Amar, has a program which provides capoeira training to kids living on the street combined with social service.  The program works towards integrating these kids into the work force by the time they're 17, in hopes that they will fully adapt, and also learn about their culture (capoeira) and community in the process.  Everything that he does is funded through his own money and he provides kids in Pelourinho with a friend, mentor, and a place to stay.  To see more about the project, guerreiros da luz you can visit his site

				http://www.capoeirabrasilbahia.com/guerreiros-da-luz/

In addition to Amar, there are a variety of other non-profit organizations here in Salvador offering these kids a place to stay, food, and clothes are cheap and available to them. But the majority keep asking for coins, or food like powdered milk, cookies, and other prepackaged items which they can later resell or trade off for drugs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         So what can we do?  Don't give coins, invite them to a sit down lunch with you, talk with them.  And if they refuse your offer, just think of the mouse before you buy him the milk.