Ana María Marañon de Bohorquez gives Fernando a hug. He was born on the street, the son of drug addicts, and started sniffing glue when he was two. Ana María took care of Fernando when he was four and since then he's been living at her home for street children, El Arca de Rescate de los Niños (The Children's Rescue Ark).

"Are you ready, Pepe? Get the pot and let's go!" calls Ana María from the kitchen.
   Ana María contracted polio when she was two and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. In spite of her paralysis she's been helping street children and drug addicts for the past thirty years. Accompanying her everywhere is her loyal assistant, Pepe, a former drug addict.

Mama Anita's soup
–"Stop the car!" shouts Ana María.
   Two boys, each carrying a jar of glue, are walking alongside the road. Ana María sticks her head out the window:
   "Hi! How are you? We're giving out soup, come on."
   The boys'faces light up and they break into a run. The car stops a short distance further on in La Coronilla. Within moments people are running from all directions, carrying their rusty pots and pans. Everybody wants to hug Ana María.
   "Mama Anita, how I've missed you!"
   A young woman throws herself around Ana María's neck. She's high on drugs, laughing and crying almost simultaneously.
   "Mariela! How are you, my dear?" asks Ana María with concern.
   "All the children call me Mama Anita," explains Ana Maria. "Anita means 'Little Ana', which is more affectionate than just 'Ana'.
   "I come here several times a week. Giving out food is a way of making contact with the children. I encourage them to come to one of our homes," says Ana María.
   La Coronilla, a hillside overlooking Cochabamba city, is where society's discarded live. Most of its inhabitants are wrecked by glue-sniffing, drugs and alcohol. And most survive by stealing, begging or prostitution.

Nearly burnt alive
Raul Martinez Corani, 14, has lived on the street for four years.
   "I ran away from home," he says. Raul quickly learnt how to sniff glue and steal.
   "Life on the street is terrible. There's so much violence and everybody treats us very badly." Recently Raul had an experience that really scared him.
   "I was caught stealing from the market. The vendors - both men and women - tied my hands and feet together and wanted to burn me alive. They were about to pour petrol over me when the police arrived," he says.
   "I've never cried so much. I was terrified. Since then I've stopped stealing from people." Raul now works as a shoe-shine boy and earns 20 bolivianos (2,5 USD) a day.
   "I've made up my mind; I'll return to my family on Monday." 
   Ana María says that in Bolivia street children are treated worse than animals. The police are amongst the worst culprits - they beat the children and force them to give them whatever they have stolen. She also tells about a boy who was caught red-handed breaking into a car.
   "The villagers cut off his hands and then hanged him to death from a tree."