Region with World Cup opening stadium reports child abuse

The district of Itaquera, in eastern São Paulo city, where the stadium to host the opening ceremony of the World Cup was built – Itaquerão – has reported cases of sexual abuse of children and adolescents during the construction period.

Testimonies from a group of girls heard early in April by a committee for the human rights of children indicate that the number of cases of child exploitation grew after the stadium's construction began.

A case in point is the story told by B., a 13-year-old girl from an impoverished community near Itaquerão. She reports that she was abused by one of the construction workers and became pregnant.

“He used to hit on me whenever I walked past him. So one day we went out together and I became pregnant. After a while, he promised he would take responsibility for the child. My dad didn't worry about it much; it even seemed as if he liked it, because it meant one fewer mouth for him to feed. It might have been good for him, but it wasn't for me,” the girl said.

“We listened to girls who were victimized while the stadium was under construction,” said city councilor Patrícia Bezerra, a member of the team that heard the testimonies. She argues that the problem has not yet attracted the attention of authorities as it should. “Even today, the sexual exploitation of children is not treated as a priority,” she pointed out.

In May, reporters from Agência Brasil went to the area surrounding the stadium. It did not take much long before the team had the chance to hear more about the sexual exploitation of children and teenagers in the region. One of the construction workers said that the crime takes place near one of the favelas nearby, and that the number of cases keeps growing. “I've witnessed it. They're young girls.”

Protection Network

São Paulo's city government its that the area surrounding the stadium is vulnerable to the crime, so authorities have engaged a protection network, which includes social work organizations and guardianship councils. The measure is part of the Agenda for Convergence, a strategy drawn up by the federal government in an attempt to prevent the violation of children's rights during large-scale events, like the World Cup.

“This action engages social actors from local networks at several [World Cup venues],” announced Fábio Silvestre, Coordinator for Policies for Children and Adolescents from the Municipal Human Rights Secretariat. He further mentioned that the decision made by the governments to declare school holidays during the World Cup is no help in preventing sexual exploitation, as children might be even more exposed outside school.

“This was bad for us. But we found a solution by carrying out activities at the Unified Educational Centers that the Secretariat of Education has been organizing to keep kids busy,” Silvestre said. He went on to say that the city government has also intensified the advertising campaign for the hotline service “Disque 100” (Portuguese for “dial 100”), whereby reports on sexual tourism and child exploitation can be filed.

For NGO Plan International, raising citizens' awareness about the importance of reporting the crime still poses a challenge, “The number of allegations is extremely low. The government should interfere more actively in the communities affected,” argued Mônica Souza, the NGOs marketing manager.

The main concern of Plan International, whose focus lies on childhood issues, is that cases of sexual exploitation of children increase in number where the crime is no novelty. “We're worried that these girls might become even more exposed and vulnerable,” the manager added.

Data from Disque 100 show that, in 2013, São Paulo was the state with the highest number of reports on sexual abuse of children and adolescents: 3,889 cases, against 3,739 in the previous year.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira