Evangelina Green Space, also known as Espacio Verde, serves about 100 children and teenagers between 6 and 17 years old, and their mothers each week. This project is located in Villa Luján which is a community characterised by waste grounds, garbage everywhere, stagnant waters, dust streets, presence of domestic animals and animals used to draw carts (these carts are for the transportation of items the people collect from the rubbish to sell them as raw materials or for recycling). These are low-income families living in dangerous houses with very little space. Most of the men have temporal jobs linked to building work, while the women stay at home or work at textile factories or doing housekeeping. Some of the women participate in popular demonstrations known as “piquetes” to receive a minimum economic retribution paid by local politicians.
The children and teenagers from Villa Luján coexist daily with the reality of PACO, a drug that is extremely harmful and very cheap. Whether they consume it, or their families and friends, they all know and have direct relationship with PACO consumers. This familiarity puts them at risk and limits their normal capacity development. This project has been elaborated by the community as a way to prevent PACO consume among children and teenagers, offering them alternative activities that may result interesting and attractive to them, and that give them the possibility of expressing their feelings, emotions, share their experiences and build trust relationships with people with the adequate skills to care for them.