Sex education?

At El Barrilete there is a small child, no more than a baby really. This is Fabien, aged one and a bit, brought to the centre for Maria to care for. He came with his brother, who is not much older. Their family has completely imploded. The mother is a drug addict and the father, for reasons we do not know,   burned down the family home. Homeless and without parents to care for them they are now, for the moment at least, Maria's responsibility.
They will certainly be looked after very well at El Barrilete. There are little bedrooms for the children, with bunk beds and small bathrooms next door. It is basic but clean and well thought through.
But it does pose the question about what is to happen to these children, so many of whom are looked after by extended family members - aunts, grandmothers, even older siblings. It is clearly a question that goes well beyond Nicaragua. That are stories of the baby trade in which babies from poor countries are sold to childless couples in rich countries, but that cannot be the answer. Children must not be for sale like produce, but they do, ideally, need families. Furthermore, unless they are very young, remaining in their own cultural environment would seem to be the best solution. But where poverty and an uncertain life on the streets is the rule, that solution is also fragile.
Perhaps there are no answers, except better birth control. But in a Catholic country like Nicaragua, government sponsored sex education in schools is virtually non-existent. True, there are some private sex education initiatives beginning to appear, made available via NGOs and some enlightend local organisations. And for the first time we have seen condoms on sale at the checkout counters of the local Leon supermarket (now owned by Walmart). However they are only for the comparatively well off who can afford to shop there. So it is very early days and until government policy changes and/or NGO work in this area becomes wide spread, that solution also seems far off.
This all adds up to only one thing - children like Fabien, the children at Los Quinchos and all the other children in Nicaragua living in difficult circumstances - will continue to need help for the foreseeable future.