James Alva

Country: Chile

Program: SENAME, Servicio Nacional de Menores

Location: Thirteen different major regions, including Santiago, with 878 physical structures

Sponsorship of Program: SENAME is part of the governmental Ministry of Justice Department in Chile.

History/ background of program:  This foundation was founded by the Chilean government on January 10, 1979 under the Ministry of Justice.  The national program has divided Chile into thirteen geographic regions with each region containing a central administrative office and many smaller offices that actually serve the children.  By dividing the country in this way, each of the thirteen areas can better serve its own region and local communities. 

Approximate # of children served: More than 20,000 children are served in all 787 offices nationwide annually. 

Characteristics of the children served:  Children, under 18 years of age, who have either had their rights violated or who have violated the law themselves.  Most children have been either abandoned, neglected, sexually abused, or have broken the law. 

How children recruited/ selected:  Since this is a government-run organization, the state employs people to help the children.  Many people also volunteer their time to help the organization and the children.  These people both receive the children who come into the offices on their own accord, but they also go out on the streets to find children. 

Program services:

• Help is given to families of children who are in trouble 
• Protects children who are in serious trouble 
• Attention-giving to children who lack this 
• Provide residence, both temporary and long-term, for those children who need it
• Counsel children who have broken the law

Financial basis of program:  The program is fully funded by the government, but it also collaborates, non-monetarily, with private organizations to help children on specific projects. 

Philosophy or approach:  To help those children who have had their rights violated.  (These rights are rights that SENAME believes children should have.)  To help children who have broken the law by taking into account the circumstances that led them to break the law so that, long term, they can reintegrate into society.   

Special features: 

• After a legislative reform in 1999, SENAME helped Chilean children to be adopted internationally.
• Recently, the Ministry of Justice purchased a bus for SENAME, and turned it into a “fun bus” called the “Senamóvil.”  People travel on this “fun bus” around Santiago looking for children in the five major slums of the city where street children tend to hide.  SENAME has since purchased two more buses in the cities of Valparaíso and Concepción.