“Did you see the marks on his feet?” Pastor Ramón asks me in a low voice as we leave Orly’s house. No, I had been focused on his eyes and on coaxing a grin for the camera. It’s no wonder the grin had been long in coming. When Ramón greeted the family and poked his head in the door, Orly’s feet had been tied—to restrain him from roaming the neighborhood streets, looking for food.
Ramón had led us through the outer streets of La Yaguita and up a crooked concrete stairway to Orly’s house—a poorly-put-together jigsaw puzzle of a house, propped against the wall of the house behind it. Earlier that morning, the roads had been blocked by protestors—teenagers piling trash and burning tires in the road to protest poor road conditions in the neighborhood. La Yaguita is often the left-out, left-behind stepchild of the city of Santiago. For a population of 9000-10,000 children there is one public school that can serve 2500 students. There are a few private schools, but most in this neighborhood can’t afford that. Children attend the public school in shifts, half in the morning and half in the afternoon, with about 60 kids to a classroom.
That leaves plenty of free time for children to roam the streets, often unsupervised while mom works 12-hour days in the city. Orly’s mom left to live in a town near the beach resorts, earning her living by selling herself. Orly and his 3-year-old brother, Lenny, his constant companion, live with their grandmother and a confusing assortment of relatives coming and going. Orly is street-wise at the age of four.
The morning protests meant that the church’s recently opened Child Development Center was closed. Orly and Lenny showed up anyway. They left devastated that there would be no hot meal from the Center that day. Their grandmother has no income. They eat when generous neighbors offer the family food.
Orly is a bit of an extreme case, but he’s not the only hungry child roving the streets of La Yaguita. Drug pushers promise a few pesos to some to deliver their packages. Sometimes Orly earns a few pesos entertaining the teens who prompt him to say bad words. After a month of attending the Center, Orly says he doesn’t want to say bad words anymore.
The Center, birthed by Pastor Ramón and the La Yaguita Bible Church, runs both morning and afternoon, with a total of 65 children attending. The goal is to receive these at-risk children into a loving and safe environment, nurture them, teach them, and hopefully enable them to become young men and women equipped to handle life’s challenges.
Some individuals and businesses in the neighborhood have given to the Center. The over-taxed public school applauds the effort. Bob and I have agreed to help serve as a channel whereby those in the U.S. who are interested can give. If any of you would like to support a child in the Center, let us know. We’ll be giving updates on its progress and on other aspects of our work here in our blog.
Ramón had led us through the outer streets of La Yaguita and up a crooked concrete stairway to Orly’s house—a poorly-put-together jigsaw puzzle of a house, propped against the wall of the house behind it. Earlier that morning, the roads had been blocked by protestors—teenagers piling trash and burning tires in the road to protest poor road conditions in the neighborhood. La Yaguita is often the left-out, left-behind stepchild of the city of Santiago. For a population of 9000-10,000 children there is one public school that can serve 2500 students. There are a few private schools, but most in this neighborhood can’t afford that. Children attend the public school in shifts, half in the morning and half in the afternoon, with about 60 kids to a classroom.
That leaves plenty of free time for children to roam the streets, often unsupervised while mom works 12-hour days in the city. Orly’s mom left to live in a town near the beach resorts, earning her living by selling herself. Orly and his 3-year-old brother, Lenny, his constant companion, live with their grandmother and a confusing assortment of relatives coming and going. Orly is street-wise at the age of four.
The morning protests meant that the church’s recently opened Child Development Center was closed. Orly and Lenny showed up anyway. They left devastated that there would be no hot meal from the Center that day. Their grandmother has no income. They eat when generous neighbors offer the family food.
Orly is a bit of an extreme case, but he’s not the only hungry child roving the streets of La Yaguita. Drug pushers promise a few pesos to some to deliver their packages. Sometimes Orly earns a few pesos entertaining the teens who prompt him to say bad words. After a month of attending the Center, Orly says he doesn’t want to say bad words anymore.
The Center, birthed by Pastor Ramón and the La Yaguita Bible Church, runs both morning and afternoon, with a total of 65 children attending. The goal is to receive these at-risk children into a loving and safe environment, nurture them, teach them, and hopefully enable them to become young men and women equipped to handle life’s challenges.
Some individuals and businesses in the neighborhood have given to the Center. The over-taxed public school applauds the effort. Bob and I have agreed to help serve as a channel whereby those in the U.S. who are interested can give. If any of you would like to support a child in the Center, let us know. We’ll be giving updates on its progress and on other aspects of our work here in our blog.
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