Orphanage Rescue: Our Little Brothers and Sisters

“Can you take 17 children, 12 of which have extensive special needs?” the Director asked Stefan.

Stefan wanted to say, “Yes,” right away but he knew he would have to do a lot of work to make it possible. In his heart, he knew it was the right thing to do and he would make it happen.

Stefan is the National Director, NPH Honduras, Spanish for "Our Little Brothers and Sisters" — a charitable organization that has provided a home for thousands of orphans and abandoned children since 1954. Their homes span Central America and touch Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Honduras. Outside of the homes, there are 3,100 children who live outside the homes receive education, scholarships, meals and healthcare.

The Director who asked Stefan to take the children was Delmis, Director of San Pedro Sula and surrounding areas with DINAF, the Honduran Governments Directorate for Children, Adolescents and Family. There are numerous charitable organizations that provide support for orphans and children with special needs throughout Honduras but not all of them do a good job. DINAF is the agency that oversees orphanages and Stefan had built a relationship over 11 years in Honduras with them. Time and again, DINAF has turned its trust to NPHI.

Before NPH, Stefan had studied to be an economist in his home in Luxembourg and planned for a life with high earning potential. After graduating, however, he decided he wanted to try something else. He found NPH on a website and applied for a 1 ½ year volunteer position. As he states, I applied, “for all the wrong reasons.” Stefan thought he was just going for a getaway. With no experience working with children, he blindly went to Honduras to do something he had never planned or imagined. After his volunteer time he learned he really enjoyed working with children, but it still conflicted with his goals for the future. Three years later, NPH contacted Stefan for the position in Honduras. 11 years later, Stefan leads NPH Honduras, and he is the right person for the job.

Stefan understood the logistical issues involved to bringing in children but never these many with special needs. First, he had to figure out how much it would cost NPH to support the additional children and see what DINAF was willing to pay. The total annual cost was estimated around $178,000 and DINAF was only able to pay $110,000. Stefan used his contacts with the Global Orphan Foundation who offered a grant for the $68,000 a year for two years. With the financial mechanism in place, the next issue was finding a place to keep the children together in one building. It took a lot of effort to move some children together and use some older buildings to make room, but he was able to do so within two weeks.

The hardest part was yet to come. How do you move 17 special needs children and all of their beds, belongings and support equipment over 4 hours away? San Pedros Sula, Honduras has the dubious title, from various media sources, calling it the "murder capital of the world." Stefan went to work to put together a team of volunteer Nurses, Psychologists and other healthcare volunteers alongside 24 DINAF physical and mental health experts. A group of 40 people and 20 vehicles including ambulances, cars, trucks and a bus departed NPH, about an hour north of Tegucigalpa, on 17 January. Arriving late in the day, the team settled in to start the next day at dawn to begin an assessment of the children for the long journey.

After carefully preparing and loading up, the convoy headed slowly back to NPH arriving just before dusk. The children were taken to the NPH clinic for reevaluation and settled in for overnight observation to ensure they had arrived safe and healthy. Stefan took the 24 DINAF personnel on a tour of where the children would live. Much to Stefan’s surprise, while he was gone, several volunteers had put up welcome signs, balloons and 17 hearts with each of the children’s names. For the DINAF staff, it was reassuring to know that these Honduran children would be loved and cared for at NPH. Later that evening, Stefan and several of the volunteers gathered for some beers to celebrate a volunteer’s birthday, one she will never forget, and talk about their two-day adventure with “high-fives” and laughter.

The next day, Stefan got up early to go check on “his” new children and saw one of the nurses, who had made the two-day trip, running with one of the new children who was autistic but high functioning. To Stefan, that was the ultimate feeling of success. Later that day, after evening Mass in the open-air chapel, Stefan told the story of the previous day’s events to all of the NPH children, workers, volunteers and invited guests. At the end of the story, Stefan invited the new children, those that were able, to come to front and be recognized. Stefan said, “welcome your new family members - Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos.”