CARF Brazil was established by Gregory J. Smith in São Paulo, in 1993. Gregory had already established The Children At Risk Foundation -- CARF Norway in 1992, determined to benefit the street children of Brazil by defending their rights and offering them a dignified and definitive solution so that they could live and grow within a family-oriented context and healthy social environment.

In the initial years, Gregory gained valuable practical experience by living with the children on the streets and motivating them to leave such a negative and self-destructive environment, offering them an alternative home and lifestyle on a smallholding in the urban periphery of Diadema - SP.

During the last decade, the experience gained guided the organisation to create its Street Migration Prevention Programme to prevent vulnerable children and young people at risk from running away from their homes to live on the streets, developing this together with at-risk community children and abandoned street children in the process of leaving the streets. The essence of the work lies in the interest taken in and the knowledge of the personal situation of each child or young person, from the very first moment he or she becomes involved with our organisation.

Due to the success of this programme, CARF was forced to seek new solutions to cope with growing demands and in 2001 the Hummingbird Arts and Cultural Activity Centre became a reality. This allowed the organisation to expand its capacity from 80 children and young people to more than 600 attended today.

CARF's Street Migration Prevention Program is aimed at helping former street children and other at-risk community children in São Paulo, creating pathways of opportunity and a more dignified life. Most of our target population come from one of the most deprived and violent areas in the entire state of São Paulo, in situations of extreme poverty and social vulnerability. Many have special needs and require closer attention due to their unstructured family situation, which in some cases causes total neglect.
In addition, the centre supports the demands of our rehabilitation programme, serving the needs of already rescued street children or those coming off the streets

Our VISION is to become a referential solution, not only for street children, but also for any other child at risk in Brazil or elsewhere in the world, but to do that we also depend on your help. Please visit our Blog, ChildrenAtRisk-STREETKIDS (http://www.carfwebnet.blogspo t.com/), for more details and updates on our work in Brazil and access to PayPal donations.

A recent documentary film from Norwegian TV can be seen at http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/kli pp/60272