To be young and Cape Verdean in parts of Dorchester and Roxbury has spelled danger since a conflict between Cape Verdean factions in 1995 turned into a street war. The death toll has topped 25, according to police estimates, while dozens have been wounded, and many others are behind bars.
His community in crisis, Barros is training to help rescue it. When he returns in April, he plans to honor his slain cousins and help save the next generation of Dorchester’s Cape Verdean youth by applying the teaching experience he gained in the back country of Senegal and the violent slums of Brazil on the streets of Boston.
Barros is the face of a better tomorrow in a city scarred by a rising tide of homicides. Of the 72 murders last year in Boston — up nearly 50 percent from 2009 — few were more shocking than the shooting death of a 14-year-old who was allegedly ambushed on his scooter by two Cape Verdean youths a mile from Barros’s home.
“I want the kids out there to know there are alternatives to the life they see on the streets,’’ said Barros, who has embraced the values he learned from his parents, teachers, priests, and mentors.
“I want the kids to see me as a role model they can follow away from all of that,’’ he said by phone from Cape Verde, an island nation off northwest Africa.
Cape Verde is the last stop on Barros’s 10,000-mile mission, a journey on which he has exemplified the spirit of the Peace Corps and the power of sports to improve society. On each stop, he has spent days inviting boys and girls to basketball clinics, then weeks teaching them not only about the game but the power of education, leadership, and healthy living.
He carries with him the hopes of a South Boston couple — Justin and Lindsey Kittredge — who four years ago launched Shooting Touch Inc., a nonprofit that first served needy children in Boston, then went global.
