Give Hope 2 Kids Blog

The New and Improved Library Program

We're relaunching our new and improved Library Program here at Give Hope 2 Kids.  It's exciting to see a fresh influx of kids enjoying new books and more creative activities.

Earlier in the year we suspended our Library Program to focus on helping our village school.  We wrote previously about the dramatic changes enacted in the school system.  Due to fewer teachers and more school days, we've sent volunteers to our local elementary school nearly everyday so far in 2013.  Now however, we'll be swinging our focus back from the school to our Library Program once again.  

We're ready now to offer English, computer, music, and Bible classes here on-site at Give Hope 2 Kids!  Thanks to a great volunteer force and larger facilities, we can offer these classes and have the Library open three afternoons a week.  We are excited for an ever greater way to reach out to the kids in our community.  

Recently our team was discussing what influence our educational programs have.  Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget about the big picture, or miss what the home life is for many of our kids.  Jorge is a student that reminds us of why our classes for the community are so important.  Jorge is a boy that started school really late.  He's the first kid in his family to go to school, even though he has lots of school-aged brothers.  He and his brothers are all little cowboys that are taught how to work hard, but not how to read.  Now, thanks to our classes and tutoring, Jorge will have a chance to go on to junior high and high school.  Can you imagine being the first one ever in your family to finish elementary school?

We value being a Children's Home with an outward focus, a community perspective.  We want to share our resources and knowledge with any willing kids from our area.  For young people here, getting an education is the difference between growing beans and corn as a subsistence farmer and having an open world of opportunities.  We hope to prepare many local kids to thrive in high school so they can go on to succeed in university and then do well the years beyond that.  

Introducing Our New Kids

For over a year now we’ve had 10 kids in the Give Hope 2 Kids Home.  Yesterday we added 6 more kids to the mix!  It is an honor to be charged with caring for these kids.

So, there are now 16 kids living in our Children’s Home.  While that’s the official number for the Children’s Home though, it’s not how many kids live here.  If you include the 14 kids from our staff and volunteers, we actually have 30 kids living on this property – and 21 adults!

You may be asking why there’s such a crowd living here, so we’ll explain.  When a child comes from a background of neglect and abuse, we feel the best way to get them healthy is to surround them with healthy families that reflect God’s love.  We’ve found three great families – mom, dad, and their kids – to take in and raise our “orphans.”  Then we try to surround these families with great support, in the form of our volunteers and staff. 

By God’s grace we are creating a community where kids can grow up feeling secure and loved.  

We had to wait a few months for this newest batch of kids.  In June the new house-parents,  Jesús and Rina, moved here with their family.  They're from our village and we've known their family for several years.  We've seen how well they've raised their own kids, so we are excited to watch them incorporate these six new children into their family.  We've already seen Jesús out playing soccer barefoot with the kids,  in a culture where dads don't play much, so we're encouraged about the future of this newly blended family.

There are two families represented within the group of 6 kids.  The first family includes Carlos: 9, Ingris: 8, Agustín: 4, and Jorgito: 1.

The second family includes Yensi: 9 and Dennis: 6.

We have seen so much improvement and growth in the lives of the kids here.  It is a privilege to offer them a home and hope for a better life.  We anticipate watching this new batch of children adapt and thrive.  

 

 

(Sadly, since the above was posted, these kids had to leave our Children's Home at Give Hope 2 Kids.  They are missed.)

 

 

Thanks to Our 2013 Summer Groups

This summer we were privileged to host two amazing work groups.  They helped us complete several important projects on the Give Hope 2 Kids property. 

Our first group visited us from Lancaster, Minnesota.  For many of them, it was their first trip outside of the US, but they quickly adapted and got to work.  

We finished several painting projects with them, made desks for computer classes, and worked on the new volunteer duplex.  This was an amazing group with great attitudes.  We want to say a special thanks to Wes, our volunteer Kelvin’s Dad, who helped organize all of the details for the group.  

Our other group came from Virginia.  This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve had a group visit us from Cloverhill Assembly in Midlothian, Virginia.  Our good friend Rachel Kelly is the team leader.  She always brings a group that's ready to work and have lots of fun with kids.  This year they did a makeover of an elementary school in San Luis, a small village that's a 45 minute steep hike up from our village.  We also painted the 2nd House for kids, installed bookshelves in the Library, painted the office, and several other projects.

We are grateful to these groups who sacrificed so much to get here and serve others.  Thank you to all who came!  We enjoyed having you.

GH2K Daily Life

When our volunteer Becca Atkinson was here she took some absolutely beautiful photos of daily life here at Give Hope 2 Kids.  Thanks Becca for sharing your perspective and your photos! 

 

Afternoons Outside

Hanging Out on the Playground

Shoes by the Door

Library Art Projects   

Just Hanging Out

Cows on the Porch, Again!

Hair-Do

Brothers Playing

 

 

Swimming in the Creek

Doing Homework

Being Silly

Carrying Around the Little Ones