The Saint Monica’s Home of the Augustinian Recollects in Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil) is a project that fights against exploitation, abuse, abandonment, school drop-out or any type of violence against underage girls and adolescents from neighborhoods, families and more vulnerable.
The Municipal Parliament of Fortaleza, which is the legislative power for the Brazilian local councils, created an Investigative Committee about sexual tourism when it verified that Fortaleza was an international reference point for tourism with sexual motivations. During an investigation similar to the police, they discovered that in Fortaleza there is a complex network of management for prostitution with minors and adolescents which covers all parts of the administration, businesses in the tourist sector, estate agents and also security forces. Minors find in tourism easy access to goods. From begging up to informal selling, passing by sexual exploitation, they have become mere objects of consumption instead of productive subjects in their own personal growth.
The intervention of the Brazilian Public Administration in this problem began in 1993, although it had its high point in the year 2000. That year they published the National Plan to Combat Sexual Violence for Youth and Minors and they instituted the 18th of May as National Day to Combat the Abuse and the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents. Sadly, the efforts have not been sufficient. The permissive society, a chaotic family model and legal negligence permit the continued existence and functioning of the motels. Only through integral action and education (physical, mental and emotional) will we succeed in breaking the vicious circle in which young girls and adolescents find themselves prisoners.
“Angels of the sun” is a Brazilian film, directed in 2006 by Rudi Lagemann, which has closely touched on the grave problem of commercial sexual exploitation of minors in Brazil. It tells the story of Maria, a small girl born in the north-east of Brazil (not far from Fortaleza), who is successively sold on to a diverse range of people to be sexually exploited. You can see the trailer for the film here:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- 1. One dollar and a half: a Passport to immunity
- 2. The origin of Saint Monica’s Home
- 3. A project with principles
- 4. A Project in communion
- 5. The dynamics of injustice
- 6. Sexual tourism and the under-age
- 7. Who has access to Saint Monica’s Home?
- 8. A project with objectives
- 9. Methodology, Evaluation, Planning
