7. Metodología de investigación
7.3 Triangulación de los instrumentos de investigación
When seeking to see the world from the perspective of a child the group recognized that we ought to resist a binary approach i.e. mindsets that would describe certain features of life and influences upon the young as either entirely bad or entirely good. Rather, the group acknowledged the ambiguities and contradictions present in young lives: parents, employment, education, even urbanity itself all appear as polysemous factors.14
The working group concluded this stage by converging on a finite number of issues that appear to reside at the heart of the problem for urban Children and Youth, as follows: • Broken family relationships – in terms of both the physical separation of the birth parents and also the effects of compromised parenting within dysfunctional families.
• Lack of security – in terms of susceptibility to physical, social, cognitive and spiritual danger and exploitation.
• Limited participation in healthy community – in terms of the child experiencing stigmatization or exclusion.
• Struggle for economic survival – in terms of exclusion from a share of the wealth being generated in the City due to the broken connection between the need and resources.
Finally, it is worth noting that during Stage 1, a majority world participant, from the Philippines, raised an important postcolonial critique of the concept of empowerment.
The group agreed that we must be careful to realize that issues of power and powerlessness are often very subjective. What we may perceive as powerlessness from our position of privilege may not be a true interpretation of the situation.
The ISUM delegates participated in two “immersion” experiences to frame, fuel and form their discussion.
14 An immediate and concrete example lies in the case of parents. To have a parent or parents is a good thing, but parents are likely imperfect and inconsistent and may influence the life of their child for both good and ill. Nevertheless, esteem for parents is a core component of a child’s psycho-social development and even in corrupted and compromised situations, scaffolding this aspect of a child’s self requires care and is not to be dismissed.
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Immersion 1: Word Made Flesh (WMF) - Tim and Amy Hupe
Tim and Amy are Americans who have been living and ministering in Bangkok as a family (they have 2 young children of their own) for the last 6 years.In the city of Bangkok young kids are sent to the streets at night to beg in order to bring in income for their families. On the streets they are very vulnerable, yet WMF have observed that they also show great resilience and a good deal of ingenuity in order to survive.
By way of methodology, WMF begin with a simple approach which is ‘to go and sit with’, in the most literal sense of that expression.
They have oriented their personal schedules around maintaining a consistent late-night presence in the streets and alleys where they know children and young people will be found. In practice they have learned to be aware that their attention towards the vulnerable can actually further expose those they are reaching out to. This means that they have to be very careful – this is particularly the case when dealing with trafficked girls and women who are being ‘controlled’.
WMF have recently taken on a new base, a property with a reasonably secure perimeter in close proximity to the specific downtown district of Bangkok most notorious for the illicit nighttime industries. This base now affords WMF the opportunity to have a nighttime drop-in for some of the women in the sex trade. For those who are not Thai but asylum seekers / refugees from other countries they may get an opportunity to advocate for them so that official UNHCR status can be gained which is a big milestone. The nature of Bangkok as a global city was revealed as Amy described the nationalities of women she meets who have been trafficked to the city. Once again the ambiguities of exploitation and complicity were exposed as Amy noted ‘I have never met an Uzbek prostitute who didn’t know what she was getting into when she came over here – but they bought into a bad deal – they have to service a lot more men than they expected, for a lot less money than they expected’.
111 The new base has also become home to a little school for the street
kids. WMF have implemented a form of play therapy that they learned from the Ragamuffin project in Phomn Phen in Cambodia. The implementation of this play therapy ‘borrowed’ from the neighboring nation of Cambodia is a great example of urban practitioners ‘looking sideways’ to learn from one-another rather than re-inventing the proverbial wheel.
From a secure Western perspective it is easy to sit in judgment over these parents who appear to be exploiting their own children and literally putting their lives at risk. And yet WMF have resisted becoming calloused by such judgment. Rather they have sought to understand the tragic moral and ethical dilemmas faced by the parents – whose choices are often not choices at all but pressure pushing toward either the dreadful or the terrible. What kind of choice is the choice between hunger and begging? What sort of choice is the choice between homelessness and prostitution? A further layer of complexity upon this issue is that of culture, in particular conflicting notions of shame. WMF had needed to learn that eastern ideas of shame differ from western ideas of shame. What is shameful in the Global West may not be shameful in the Global East, and vice versa. For example incomers from the West have great difficulty understanding why someone would choose to sell their body for sex, and do so regularly for such a small price. It is vital therefore to note that the western approach to social justice can be very black and white and struggles to cope with complexity and ambiguity.
The immersion experience at “Word Made Flesh” identified challenges to urban shalom which are complex and interconnected; in the corrupting power of money in a context of extreme poverty; in desperate choices people are forced to make; as even children are objectified and turned into economic units; where adults ignore problems developing in their children and non-intervention is legitimized as stories circulate on the streets e.g. “don’t try to help those street kids; they work for the mafia”.
Nevertheless we also observe seeds of hope, sprouting subversive shalom: in the companionship amongst those working the street, summed up in a Filipino phrase “tara
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me-i” which means “I got your back”; in the sharing of resources amongst the poor and exploited, as kids sometimes pool their begging cash with a kid who is having a bad night; in the quick wit of street kids who catch on when made aware of their basic rights e.g. being taught to say “don’t touch me” in English to the Western men who try to molest them.
Immersion 2: The Hub - Illya (Russian project manager)
“The Hub, in a poor inner suburb of Bangkok is not a Christian project but has an excellent holistic approach that is very ‘kingdom compatible’. Positioned prominently at a busy street intersection it is a well-proportioned building over 3 floors with a number of special facilities including washing and feeding areas, educational and creative space plus quiet areas for group and individual counseling and therapy. The Hub serves 500 – 1000 kids and youth every year.
The main aim of The Hub is ‘harm reduction’ by providing a safe place for street kids to rest during the day, to eat a healthy meal, wash, get checked up medically and receive appropriate therapy. The children and youth served by the staff and volunteers of the Hub are mainly
Thai by origin, some born in Bangkok, others from out of town. Illya explained that many of those using the center are runaways. The group were told that by far the main cause of kids running away from home is physical / domestic abuse in the home. Illya feels that if this could be stopped the flow of new kids on the street would be almost solved overnight.
The Hub aims to trigger self-awareness in kids. They need to know that the things that are happening to them – such as sexual exploitation – are wrong. They do not know that they are victims. From this recognition pathways out of exploitation can be developed such as referral to a place in an out-of-town boarding school or repatriation to their home town / nation.
The street kids are savvy – they have a strong survival instinct but they make bad choices every day – such as sniffing glue. They are very independent and know lots about making money – mainly from sexual
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favors through which they can make up to $100 a day – although they can never ‘save’ money, they always spend it very quickly.”
The immersion experience at “The Hub” identified challenges to urban shalom in which human children are marginalized; there are very few places for street kids to hang out, a scarcity of parks, and children are not tolerated in the tourist parks. The voice of children is suppressed – though they have much to say, as keen observers in the world, but there is nobody who will listen. Nevertheless, seeds of hope can be seen to sprout as young people at The Hub are participants not recipients, their increasing awareness unfolds possibilities of alternate and positive choices: e.g. one boy’s life was revolutionized when he decided to become a (Buddhist) monk and was accepted as a novice in a monastery community.
Immersion 3: In search of Sanuk, Sunday Program
In Search of Sanuk is a volunteer led initiative, which aims to bring “sanuk,” the Thai word for fun, to Bangkok’s neediest families. The project uses fun activities to reach out to underprivileged communities, organizing a Saturday School teaching English with the help of local international schools and other exciting activities. Fun is also used (often in combination with food) in many events organized to fundraise and generate interest in finding sponsors for the families we support each month. Fun and food, important aspects of life in every culture, facilitate connections, which reach beyond language barriers and the most heartbreaking circumstances to show we care.