Lima Street Children

There are tens of thousands of street children all over Lima. It's impossible to avoid them. They come up to you on the street, sometimes to try to sell you a piece of candy, other times w/ nothing more than an outstretched hand. They're also at the intersections, juggling balls or doing somersaults or offering to wash your front windshield, then looking for a tip. Other times street children are accompanied by an adult woman who claims to be their mother, & who begs for assistance for her "children." Recent news reports in Lima, however, have shown that frequently this is a scam, & the women & children are not at all related, but are posing as mother and child(ren) in order to collect money for a third party who gives them room & board & little else.

There is a movement afoot in many municipal districts in Lima to discourage people, & particularly tourists, from giving money to street children. The belief is that little, if any, of the money stays w/ the children, & that almost all of it goes to adults who are using the children for exploitative purposes only.

Locals & tourists are split on this. Some feel that it's almost impossible to say no to a child who is begging you for a coin, while others are wise to the fact that whatever money is given to a child will quickly be turned over to an adult somewhere around the corner.

How do you handle this issue in your corner of the world? How do you show the love of Christ to others, including to street children & even to their adult handlers, while at the same time not being manipulated by them, or by not serving to enable a system which exploits children?