THE ORPHANAGES OF LA PAZ

Today we accompanied Monique from Creative Corners to a few of her volunteer projects here in La Paz.  We will be volunteering with Creative Corners once we get to Cusco in Peru, and later in Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica.  But today, since we were here in La Paz we wanted to see some of the work that she does, and she was so gracious as to let us shadow her.

First we went to Hogar Virgen De Fatima Orphanage that houses 120 children, that range from newborn through 12 years old.  We saw all the different children, which brought tears to my eyes.  The newborn babies abandoned by their parents, really broke my heart.  There are only 2 hardworking “mamitas” to bathe, clothe, feed, change, and play with them all.  And although the orphanage has private funding, they are working hard to get even the bare necessities for the children.  Sometimes the children can’t even go outside and play because they don’t have enough people on staff to watch them.  Monique helps oversee volunteers in the orphanage that help the “mamitas” with the babies. They play with the babies, change them, feed them, and do whatever they can do to help out.  Monique is currently putting together a proposal to help get funding for this orphanage because they are in dire need of several washing machines.  They have over 120 children in the orphanage, half of which are babies in diapers, but due to cost, they use cloth diapers.  The “mamitas” spend many hours washing the cloth poopy diapers by hand, and so much more time could be spent with the children (not to mention to help and prevent the spread of disease) with a washing machine.  She said that they don’t even need a dryer, that clothes can dry fine on a clothes line.  SO, if you have any connections to help get this wonderful orphanage a washing machine please let me know!

After the orphanage, we went down the street to IDAI, which is a home for abandoned children with disabilities.  This was incredibly heart breaking.  Again, very few “mamitas” who work 24 hour shifts, and way too many children for them to care for.  We saw many children just lying in beds or cribs in rooms all by themselves, as they are immobile, and are just kept put without any attention.  We also went to the adjoining building which is a home for adults with disabilities.  The buildings are drab and dark and it looked like an institution from the 1950′s.  Monique even told us that they sometimes tie the patients to their beds to keep them there at night.  Again, just not enough help and funding to make these facilities run as they should.  Creative Corners sends volunteers into the special needs homes to help care for the patients.  Monique said sometimes the best thing that you can do to “help” them is to take them for a walk outside–but often there are not enough volunteers or staff to do this.  Something so simple, but something that they rarely get to do because they aren’t enough staff to give individual attention.

We definitely learned that little things can go a long way here. But at the same time–the circumstances are fairly dire.  There are not nearly enough staff to care for the children–and we were told it’s very rare that children get adopted (Only about 5 a year get adopted).  This experience definitely opened our eyes and our hearts. If you are interested in finding out more about volunteering with Creative Corners or helping in any way with these orphanages, please don’t hesitate to contact Monique at Creative Corners.