Our Broken Dreams

Children who choose to leave home as a result of hunger, poverty, conflict, or simply to seek adventure, often travel alone. Crossing the border into strange countries, which for them hold great promise, the find their hopes battered when bandits steal their possessions or abuse them. They are often arrested by authorities, have their few possessions confiscated, and find themselves vulnerable to sexual and verbal abuse. Published with Save the Children, the book is based on interviews with children, some as young as twelve years old: Why did they leave home? How did they cross borders with no documentation? What hazards did they face en route, and at their destinations? Although their chronicles of theft, violence, sexual abuse and workplace exploitation can seem relentless, and often end in arrest and deportation, they are at the same time life-affirming and filled with hope.