November 26, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 1, 1424

TEGUCIGALPA: Honduran first lady Aguas Ocana, a former Spanish diplomat, charms her way through state dinners and genteel charity events.

But her real passion is venturing out at night to dangerous parts of the capital to rescue street children from a life of begging, poverty and crime.

Dressed in jeans and a sweater, the wife of conservative President Ricardo Maduro leads teams of police and social workers who grab children off the streets whether they like it or not and take them to government shelters.

Since June, a programme headed by the first lady has taken 670 street kids from Tegucigalpa and the northern city of San Pedro Sula into government care.

“It’s best to go out at night and in the early hours of the morning to rescue children. You can find bunches of four or six minors sleeping together under newspapers or cardboard,” Ocana said.

Aid organizations estimate there are between 3,000 and 20,000 street children in Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere.

The British charity Save The Children says 72 per cent of the 3.2 million Hondurans under the age of 18 live in poverty.

But many of the children resist the rescue effort, leading to clashes between their relatives and Ocana’s police escorts.

And some aid organizations have criticized the first lady’s “Zero Children on the Streets” campaign as a political stunt.—Reuters