Chegar, ficar e (talvez) sair: etnografia de jovens adolescentes institucionalizadas de um abrigo em João Pessoa/PB

Abstract

This paper proposes an ethnography of young adolescents institutionalized in João Pessoa / PB, who are there due to protective measures for having their rights violated, according to the “Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente”. The field research was carried out in a foundation maintained by the Catholic Church, where were sheltered thirteen young female adolescents, interlocutors of this work, besides the caregivers / educators and five children, whose mothers are the young adolescents. The objective was to reflect and understand about their arrival at the shelter, their permanence and exit possibilities, which may occur with the return to their families or when they reach the legal age of eighteen. The field revealed that the permanence of young adolescents in the institution is surrounded by relatedness connections, both regarding caregivers and missionaries who participate in their lives, especially during leisure time, as well as between them, where family arrangements are created. In addition, the relationship with the institution permeates the dichotomy between protection and control, in which institutional and gender violences are reproduced as regards control over contact with their families of origin, and the control of bodies and sexuality. Finally, the possibilities of leaving for family reintegration showed that despite the distance promoted by the institution, staying with their families still represents the main desire of the interlocutors, together, to a lesser extent, with the desire to build new configurations from the moment they achieve adulthood.