Colombia's Sewers Home to Many Vagrant Kids

Today, on the CNN website was an article about the many Colombian kids who live in the sewers. The trend started in the 90s when "death squads" were sent during the night to "clean" the streets of the many homeless children. To escape the violence at home and on the streets, kids moved into the sewers. For a while, this became a humanitarian story, discussed openly on the news and charities were set up to help the kids. However, like most things, media attention soon turned to other stories. And police began going into the sewers killing many kids to end the problem.

It is not over, though. Kids still live in the sewers. They live on crack to escape the anxiety living in these horrible conditions creates. One man, "Papa Jaime" is still trying to solve the problem. he tries to help the kids move out of the sewers and get a better life. The children look to him as a protector and trust him.

This is a very moving article and video clip that explains more about the situation. I encourage you to watch it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/04/22/vbs.sewers.bogota/index.html?hpt=C1