Casa Aleluya Orphanage #1

The Orphanage

So my volunteer placement is at an orphanage called Casa Aleluya. It was started by an American couple and has really strict Christian values. The orphanage is quite big, there are about 400 children there. They have their own school, church and medical centre. Most of the funding comes from international donations and church fundraising.

Children are taken in from any age up to 18. They come from all different situations - from abusive families, or some have parents who can't take care of them, or parents affected by drugs or alcohol. They might have also been removed from their family by the Guatemalan child safety authorities.

The shocking stories of these kids - some heavy stuff.

Something that really affected me was when I was told that almost every girl had been sexually abused before they came to the orphanage. One story of a girl was that she had been abused by her father, grandfather and uncle, before her aunt took her to Casa Aleluya. It just breaks your heart and makes you sick to the stomach. When you have met all the kids and spent time with them for weeks, it breaks your heart even more because you know all their personalities and you think to yourself, "What kind of person could do this to innocent children??"

The orphanage provides most things for the children and ingrains them with strict Christian morals. But one thing I was told is that the subject of sex is taboo, and this goes for all of Guatemala in general. One of the spanish teachers here said that when she was younger, she was only told, "Don't get pregnant." She was warned not to get pregnant, but no one told her how it actually worked. So when she fell pregnant at 19, she honestly had no idea that how it happened. At 19 years old. So sad. At the orphanage, because of their strict Christian values, I was told that if a girl gets pregnant, she gets kicked out. No one is taught at school about that kind of thing, I guess they just get their knowledge through friends etc. This makes me so mad, that young girls are not getting taught anything about that kind of thing, or even about diseases etc. I can really see the gap here in this third-world country compared to back home.

I also found out some individual stories about the kids here. The youngest, a little baby about 3 months old, came from a mother who was an alcoholic. She has a smaller head then normal, I heard it was from her mother drinking while pregnant. The cook at the orphanage told me that she was arrived here when she was 10. She said that she had 6 siblings, but was meant to have 8. When I asked her about that, she said that her dad regularly hit her mum, and twice he hit so so hard when she was pregnant that she lost the babies.

Another girl here learns and develops slower than other children. She is this way because because she was found on the side of the road still in the placenta.

Placement work - something a little lighter.

I attend placement every weekday morning from about 8 to 12. I work with my roomie Sarah and my friend Erica. Because we work in the morning, the older kids are at school, so all the children we spend time with are 4 years old and under - too young for school yet.

When I first got to the orphanage it was pretty overwhelming. All the kids rush up to you and want to be picked up and held. They are so comfortable with strangers and that makes me quite sad because so many people walk in and out of their lives. All they want is a bit of individual attention and love. This is the section I am in, which provides for kids aged 7 or 8 and under.

Los Angelitos - Little Angels

At first, our work consisted of just playing with the kids. There are two sections, the older children who are toilet-trained, and the younger ones who live in the "Babies room". All the rooms are like dorms, with rows of beds for the children to sleep on. A nanny or two also sleeps in the same room with them.

Our little projects

Erica, Sarah and I decided that we would do some painting around the place. The girl's room was decorated in half-finished portraits of Minnie Mouse, so we got stuck in and finished off their room for them, they were so pleased! I also painted this little guy on their bedroom wall.

There was some old wooden play equipment lying around so painted that too! It was such a hit!

We didn't want the boys to be left out - their room wasn't even started - so we each painted something in their room. I decided to draw and paint numbers across one wall. I'm not at all artistic so I was quite proud of myself when it turned out really well!