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What Kind of Amazing
Grace?
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Roney And Claudiney In the course of researching Creative Commons photos for the video, I came across the Flickr photoset for CARF - Children At Risk Foundation. It was founded in 1992 to serve the abandoned street children of Brazil. A man named Gregory J. Smith moved from Norway in '93 to work with abandoned kids living on the streets of Sao Paulo. Smith is an incredible photographer and has a body of work that is vivid and compelling that gives an unprecedented look into the lives of a generation of abandoned and abused children. I encourage you to spend some time browsing around his Flickr account (any link on this page'll do ya) Photos of two children, in particular, caught my eye - those of Roney and Claudiney. Smith had befriended them at an early age and was a source of normalcy for an otherwise unimaginable childhood.  photo source: Children At Risk Foundation - CARF (www.carfweb.net) I read the story of these two brothers (and numbers of other children) who grew up taking care of each other on the streets of Sao Paulo. While looking at images Smith recorded beautifully over the years, I was struck by the amount of love present between two kids who had no choice but to survive on the dirty and dangerous streets of Brazil. Their connection and the impact he's had on them seems evident to me, and Smith's abilility to capture it so clearly is arresting. I became charmed by their innocence contrasted with knowing they inhabit one of the harshest realities imaginable. Then I read that Roney had recently been brutally murdered as a nuisance to be exterminated. I'd read this is not an uncommon occurance. I can't help but wonder what it must be like for a man to leave his country to take care of children on the street, befriend them, offer them support and then watch them die. I just can't imagine. A while later he learned that Claudiney had been savagely murdered as well. Today, Smith is a foster parent to 8 recuperated street children and the Foundation he started has grown to serve a thousand kids in 2007 and is now doing outreach in the favealas. If there was ever the definition of a saint, I'd say Smith fits. I just signed up to fund a basic monthly scholarship to their programs, which guarantees a place for a child in their programs and essential attendance in public schools. I'm hoping this project will geanerate at least that much each month to support a kid living in such dire conditions. The success of the Foundation's approach is evident by the impact they have (read the caption and click on "see her 10 years later") on the lives of lost children. It's remarkable and inspiring to me. Whether you choose to support CARF or some other organization benefitting a cause YOU are moved to support, please do something.
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