¿De dónde vienen los niños?

Where do the children come from?

In honor of my first day of New Volunteer Orientation, I wanted to share a little bit about NPH, what I will be doing here, and what I am learning during Orientation.

Naturally, one of the first questions people have is about the kids, and how they have come to live at Rancho Santa Fe. 

So here is a VERY brief intro:

In order to join the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos family, the children must fit the following criteria:
- Their mother must have passed away or abandoned them with no hope for her return and their father must be unable to care for them
- All Children must come from dire poverty with no relatives able to care for them.
- All sisters and brothers up to the age of sixteen must be admitted together

Children, in general, are referred through some Honduran social service, or simply by word of mouth. Sometimes, when children are removed from their home by the court system, for abuse or any other number of reasons, NPH is a possible placement site.
A committee of people, including the medical staff, psychologists and the social work department decide if the home has the resources and means to appropriately care for each child individually.

So what does all of this mean?
This means that NPH may look very different than what we picture an orphanage to look like in the US. Some of these kids may still have two parents alive. Some kids may have one. Some kids may have large extended families, who were simply not able to care from them after their parents passed away.
NPH works very hard to make sure kids stay in contact with their family outside of the Ranch. Including a Visitors Day three times a year, and providing financial support for family members who need it in order to come and visit.

So that is who the kids are!