If you have been following our story – welcome back!  We are so excited to share this update with you so that you can see how your prayers and donations are impacting the 80+ children of Casa Hogar Elim orphanage.

If this is your first time with us – we send out a big hello and thank you for sharing your time with us.  We hope that after reading this, our other blogs, and checking out the pictures, you will feel encouraged to add your prayers and donations to the cause and become part of the Gift of Dignity team!   No donation is too small – every penny will be put to good use! 

A Brief Recap

After 8 years of monthly visits to the orphanage, we saw that education was a significant key to breaking the cycle of poverty that so often accompanies underprivileged and orphaned children. Attempts to implement programs by being on site at the orphanage one weekend per month were unsuccessful. Yet we knew education was the answer.  When the opportunity came for my husband and I to move to the orphanage and work full time on a solution, we jumped in with both feet! In November, we will be living full time at the orphanage, building a learning center with a library, reading room, and computer lab.  In addition, we will connect with local experts who can provide apprenticeships to teens and young adults who are not destined for a formal education.  And finally, we will work on expanding the footprint of a small ‘circle of life’ concept that capitalize on the synergies between raising chickens, vegetables and fish.

The Dream Becomes Reality

Have you ever dreamed about something so long and with such passion that when you close your eyes you can literally ‘see’ it? That is how it has been for me and the learning center. I have created the rooms in my mind’s eye so many times, the library, the computer lab, the reading room, I know every detail of them all.  So, to see them begin to take physical form caused my heart to stand still and then leap for joy.  With the hard work and expertise of an amazing team, the dream has grown legs and is starting to crawl out of my head and into reality.

We need a lot of support – this is a team effort.  Please consider adding your prayers and financial support to these efforts and see how you, too, can impact a child’s life forever!