Presentation
The centre Souriya offers hostel accommodation to number of teenagers with problems. Some of them are working, some study at school and others are apprentices at Liege carpentry, Uyarvu or outside.
Souriya enables them:
to find a minimum of amenities (shelter, washing, laundry, food, a place to sleep, healthy group activities) in summary, to structure their time and mind.
to get out of bad habits and undesirable behaviour learned in the street.
to plan for the future, with the help of social workers.
to learn a skill at Volontariat (Uyarvu, carpentry, ..) or outside.
and most important, to be seen and treated as human beings, not as criminals.
If you come across a look that does not judge you, if you can speak about
a future that is not the street, if you can trust somebody, it is probably what motivates a teenager to do the necessary effort to get out of an easy life, for a more difficult one that Volontariat proposes to him.
Now, the idea of a home for street children has expanded to other categories of children at risk: boys without a home and living on the street, orphans or semi- orphans, boys with behavioral problems, boys without resources coming from very poor families, boys who experienced serious family problems (separation or divorce, abandonment, violence, etc), boys in danger of sexual abuse in the family, boys with physical handicap, homeless boys, etc.
To accommodate all the activities, the centre is built on 3 levels:
On the ground floor: a reception room, kitchen, showers and toilets, the office room for the person In-charge and even a flat for the staff.
Upstairs: 2 dormitories, 2 rooms, a television room that can serve as classroom and school support.
A large terrace allows them to refresh themselves, to dry their clothes or to do physical training.
Years have passed, but children still come to Souriya. We try to have contact with the family and step by step, stitch again links between the child and his family. Some are going to school, some are apprentices at Liege carpentry or outside. The main problem is to prepare a future for each of them.
Souriya is surely not a 100% success story: the boys have experienced severe difficulties in the street, but have also discovered a way of life without barriers that they believe is the true life! We need a psychological approach, specifically planned for each of them. The result has to be seen only in the long term, so the apparent failures are numerous!
