(Des)caminhos na trajetória do atendimento a crianças e adolescentes em situação de rua

Abstract

The National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CONANDA) has been developing guidelines for the care of the street children, since there are still violating practices being held by the Brazilian public power, even after the establishment of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA). The present work aims to carry out a historical recovery of street children’s care policy in the city of Natal / RN. The research is inspired by the foundations of historical-dialectical materialism and has used the historical method from the perspective of oral history. The semistructured interviews, held with two professionals from each of the services / programs / projects aligned with the work’s perspective, were studied from the analysis of the thematic content, considering: history of services / programs / projects, theoretical and methodological references, activities developed, and challenges and work potentialities. The results indetify four services / programs / projects with this target audience: National Movement of Street Boys and Girls (MNMMR), a nonprofit organization; Program Canteiros, Specialized Service in Social Approach (SEAS) and Office in the street (CnaR), all linked to the public power. The MNMMR showed a mobilizing and political role, promoting the children and adolescents as active subjects in the defense of their rights, and having as a main guide for their work the construction of affective bonds of respect and trust. The Canteiros Program held coercive street-based practices and recurrent institutional sheltering for children and adolescents. The SEAS and the CnaR try to resume the actions of guarantees of rights, providing guidelines based on respect for the autonomy of the subjects, exempting hygienistic practices. All the services / programs / projects mentioned the deficiency of the public power in providing due support, leading to greater challenges and gaps in the service network.