LOUISIANA: CHC HELPS CHILDREN AFFECTED BY HURRICANE KATRINA
CHC collected clothing, backpacks, and funds to support displaced families from New Orleans after the Katrina Hurricane. Our contact was a member of Hanover's Boyle family living in Baton Rouge who was working with others to help children integrate into the Baton Rouge schools.

Gayle grew up in Honduras and spent her teenage years in San Pedro Sula. She was introduced to this orphanage on a visit to her mother in 2006 and was stunned by the incredible work of the nuns who run the home for many of the most severely challenged children in the country. She writes about her first experience:

What impressed me most was the smiles on the children's faces, they stirred and made every effort to get our attention. It was lunch time and children who could use their hands were helping the nuns feed those who couldn't. We walked through three large dormitories, greeting the children; then we went into an enclosed porch where children in wheelchairs sat at a table to eat. I was speechless when I first saw Josue who, unable to use his hands, was using his feet to spoon soup into his mouth. Not a drop was missed, and he smiled. This incident taught me how limited, we, the 'capable' can be and that creativity and empowerment go the distance. I was also struck by how blind the nuns and children were to their handicaps, they saw only persons sitting next to them.

 

Hogar de Niños Buen Samaritano is run by Sister Maria del Carmen Huezo Superiora. She and her staff of eleven sisters and novices have enriched the lives of boys and girls adopted into the children's home since 1989. Their guiding philosophy is the dignity of each person and the promotion of life: We cannot change the world, but with our experience we can influence our family life, our work, our community of giving to others. The children they adopt are those abandoned by parents who cannot care for them due to their handicaps; some reach the home via referrals from public hospitals; and some folks drop the children off at their gate. All of the children are received with love, care, respect, dignity and stimulation from all who live in the home. All funds raised support the children's daily needs, quality of life and a building expansion effort to increase the capacity of handicapped children and add abandoned elder women to the existing community of 70 boys and girls.

CONTACT: EMILY ULRICH


Emily Ulrich (RMS '02, Hanover High '06, and Dartmouth '11), volunteered at Mis Huellitas day care and nursery in a very poor section of Cochabamba. She asked CHC if we could help them build a fence around their yard. She asked CHC to help this group build a fence around the yard: we would pay for materials and the families and staff would build it. The fence now allows the children to play outside safely, and there is room for a vegetable garden as well.