Hogar Para Todos

HOGAR PARA TODOS (HPT)

Location: Neighboring city of Azogues

Hogar Para Todos “A Home for All” is the name of this orphanage but we call it HPT.  This orphanage is for children generally ages from infant to early teens.  This home was started by the sweetest women, Nancy.  She opened her own home up to a few children who needed one and her home grew and grew until it became this “home for all”.

What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, Hogar Para Todos was so much fun! First, we tried to play outside with a big beach ball and the clothing wire as a net.  It started sprinkling so we figured that was a good time to go inside.  We all split up.  It was a little crazy because of how small the main room is and how many kids, but everyone was busy doing something.  Some volunteers brought Phase 10, Set and Uno cards.  The kids love playing cards.  Some of the old girls just wanted to paint nails.  I helped for a little while but the other volunteers can paint nails better than me so I went and started a craft that I brought.  Since it’s Halloween next week I brought things to make little spiders with foam, googly eyes and pipe cleaners.  Maybe I should have watched the hot glue gun because they used up like a million sticks of hot glue.  They loved it though.  Throughout the 2 hours, different kids kept coming up to make spiders and a lot of the kids started getting super creative and making their own little creatures and guys.  Even though my craft seemed a little too simple for the older kids, they seemed to still like it.  I think they just enjoy the entertainment and the company.  I’m so glad we get to come here and spend time with these kids.

Remar

REMAR

Location: Neighboring city of Azogues

Remar is an orphanage run by another nonprofit. There are various young adults that live there and work there taking care of the children.  They call them tias and tios (aunts & uncles). There are usually 20-40 children who live here. Remar’s other missions include providing drug and alcohol rehabilitation to poorer people in the area and providing a home for young single mothers.

All of the children have responsibilities and chores that they help out with to keep the house running smoothly. Every other Saturday morning we have the opportunity to visit these kids and sometimes we help them with chores, projects around the house or homework.

What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, usually we play cards or make a craft with the little kids, but today they were finishing their Saturday chores.  We brought some donations including new dust pans and brooms to help out.  The place seems kind of dirty, but the kids seem content.  Just before we left, they started making crepes with jam.  The girls cooking and the tias there brought us each a crepe.  It was really sweet.  Next week, hopefully it’s not raining so we can go outside and play volleyball or frisbee or something in the yard.

Hogar Miguel Leon

HOGAR MIGUEL LEON (HML)

Location: Near the center of Cuenca

Hogar Miguel León (HML) is an orphanage run by Catholic nuns for about 30-50 girls (and many of their brothers too!). You have to remember that instead of a foster care system, when children are removed from their homes and families, they go into orphanages. Therefore, every child has a different story and most have difficult backgrounds. Many of the kids have the opportunity to visit parents, aunts and uncles or grandparents during holidays and vacation times.  Most volunteers find that HML is one of the most rewarding places to serve.  Luckily we get to come here twice a week during the evenings.  It’s near the center of Cuenca about 30 minutes from OSSO and as soon as you walk in the children gather around you and holler your name if they’ve met you before.

The orphanage itself includes various buildings including an orphanage for the children, a rest home for older individuals and an old hospital. The ages of the children range from four to eighteen years old. Most of them attend school; this includes Primaria (Kindergarten, Middle School, Junior High) or Colegio (High School).

What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, HML never fails to improve my day. Those girls are so sweet and loving.  I think it may be my favorite place to go.  Today was a craft night.  One of the other volunteers was in charge of the activity.  I’m in charge of Thursday’s activity which are outdoor activities.  I’m thinking maybe musical chairs? Today instead of making a craft, we made chocolate banana smoothies.  We split into stations to do it.  The kids loved it! They soaked it up and they then ate it up. I’m going to miss these girls.  I wish we could somehow stay in touch or get a picture with them, but I don’t think that’s possible.  Can’t wait till Thursday to go to HML again!

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Los Pequenitos de OSSO

Please note: Los Pequeñitos de OSSO has since been renamed to Hogar de Ángeles.

LOS PEQUEÑITOS DE OSSO (CASAS MILAGROS & ALEGRIA)

Location: Home

Los Pequeñitos de OSSO which means OSSO’s Little Ones is the only orphanage actually owned by OSSO.  We call it OSSO for short. It’s currently the home of 21 children although some of the “children” range to 28 years old.  Because most of the residents here have severe disabilities, they live their entire lives here. This is the main site that we work at in Cuenca and we live here too!

There are currently 2 casas (houses) at OSSO: Casa Alegría (House of Joy) and Casa Milagros (House of Miracles).  Casa Milagros is downstairs and is a mix of older children with special needs and one younger child that goes to school each day.  Casa Alegria has younger children and some older children. Each casa has six bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen/dining area. Here at OSSO we have a large outdoor space to play soccer, go on walks around the orphanage and a balcony where the kids in Casa Alegría like to hang out.  We also have a room called Sala Girasol (The Sunflower Room) where we do activities when it’s raining, have movie nights and other activities.

Remember that almost every activity can be modified for wheelchair users.  Just being with them, singing to them, reading to them and hold their hand can make a difference.

What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, This morning, I also helped do physical therapy with some of the kids.  I brought the binder down from the volunteer house and I worked with Little B on his sign language.  He’s doing really well.  It’s nice to spend one-on-one time with the kids doing therapies though.  We had some activity time so we painted trees with dot paints outside.  Lunch came faster than normal I feel like and we brought them back upstairs and feed them soup and juice.  After that we headed back up to the volunteer house and ate lunch. 

This afternoon, it was raining pretty hard, so we watched a movie. I know the boys have seen Thor a thousand times but they still love it and get so excited every time! Then we helped feed everyone dinner (some of the residents have severe disabilities and need our help spoon feeding them). Then it was already time for bed! Sometimes I can’t believe how fast the days go by, time really does fly when you’re having fun!

Tadeo Torres

TADEO TORRES (CASAS & CUNAS)

Location: OSSO's Neighbor

Tadeo Torres is a large orphanage administered by Catholic nuns. We call it Tadeo, Casas or Cunas. It is at OSSO’s orphanage and here that you will serve the most. This orphanage is split into two sections: Casas and Cunas. Casas (houses) is for children 2 to 8 years old. When they reach about 8 years old, they are moved to another orphanage. Cunas (cribs/nursery) is for children under about 2 1/2 years of age.  Tadeo Torres is the only orphanage in Cuenca for babies.

Cunas

What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, I just had an amazing shift at Casas.  Those children have SO much energy.  I’m so glad that I know some Spanish but I wish I knew more though.  I love these kids.  They are so willing to love you and they love to play with anyone and everyone.  Today when I walked in, they all yelled my name.  It really made me realize how long I’ve been here and how much I’m going to miss them when I leave in a few weeks.  I wish I could just take every one of them home with me. 

I was assigned the activity for today so I brought popsicle sticks, hot glue guns, markers and lots of goodies like pompoms, googly eyes, feathers and tissue paper to decorate little funny characters and animals on the sticks.   I’m so glad that there are so many craft supplies here at OSSO to choose from. I always go to Pinterest to get fun craft ideas to do with the kids.

After the activity, we ate a snack and then went and watched a movie all together in the commons.  Around 5:30pm we headed to their little rooms to wash their hands before dinner. After dinner, we helped the kids get ready for bed, which is my favorite part of the day. The tias already set out their pajamas so I just tried to help them get ready and tucked them into bed.  They begged for a bedtime story.  Some of the other volunteers brought books to read to them but I just made up some story for them.  They listened so intently, and even though my Spanish isn’t they best, they begged for another one.  It was almost 6:30pm though so I had to go.  I hugged them and said a million goodnights and finally made it out the door.  We waved goodnight to the nun at the door and all walked back next door to OSSO. Shifts at Tadeo are always so satisfying at the end of the day.

Casas

What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, these have to be the cutest children on the planet.  The Cunas babies are so precious.  The main play room has a bunch of toys.  I love the bouncy toys and balls. One of my favorite things is trying to get the kids to make animal sounds.  They also love to climb into your lap when you grab a book and read it to them.  A nun walked in today too and the babies totally perked up and were so excited to see her. It was so cute. 

We played for about three hours and then the tia came in and told us to walk them into the kitchen.  She had prepared dinner for them.  We grabbed a chair and sat in front of a baby and fed them a huge bowl of soup. After all the babies were fed we took them into their changing room.  The tia showed us where each baby’s pajamas were and then she left us to change the everyone’s diapers and clothes.  In Ecuador they dress the babies in many layers at night to keep them warm. It’s different than what we back at home but makes sense because the buildings don’t usually have heating and it can get cold at night. My favorite part of afternoon shifts at Cunas is probably putting them to bed like the Casa kids.  You put them in bed, sing them a little song and put these cute little mosquito nets that hang from the ceiling around their beds.  Afterwards we put the aprons that we have to put on in the beginning of shift away and put our shoes back on since we have to just be in socks all shift and then we headed back to OSSO.