Here in Acapulco, the police take homeless children to any one of various homes. There are at least four large institutions - government, Catholic, Salvation Army, and Protestant - and several more small private ones, but none allows the use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.
As a result, many already-addictecd children repeatedly run away from the homes to beg on the streets. They are supported, for the most part, by tourists who don't understand that they are enabling a vice to continue.
To meet this problem the government has begun posting signs along the Costera which say, "To give us money does us harm - the Children of the Street". The signs have to be placed high on light poles, of course, because the kids tear them down if they can.
Questions?
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