We're very close to our goal of raising $1000 for the trip to Chihuahua next week. If you would like to make a donation you can do so via PayPal or drop me an e-mail if you want to send a check:
Here are some excerpts from a 2003 story on the orphanage by Gary Perez that originally appeared in The Pueblo Chieftain:
At a glance, the children appear to be like most of their peers.
They love to sing and dance. They enjoy drawing and jumping rope. They love eating potato chips and candy bars, fresh fruit and ice cream. Their favorite subjects in school are math and writing. And some of them aspire to be teachers and others doctors.
As much as they appear to be like their peers, though, the children who live at the Casa Hogar de la Misericordia orphanage have very different lives than their friends.
A discarded shoe sits on the playground at Casa Hogar orphanage. The orphanage works to feed and cloth about 100 children with meager means.
Despite the picturesque backdrop of Mexico's central mountains, the drive from the city of Chihuahua to Cuidad Aldama where Casa Hogar is located is not pretty.
The stench of the nearby sewer plant is almost unbearable, especially on a hot, muggy day.
From the highway in Aldama, there is no indication that an orphanage exists there.
Without knowledge of it, the orphanage would be impossible to find. There are no buildings visible from the busy highway lined with a variety of food stands, fish restaurants and several gas stations.
There are no road signs to show that the dirt cutoff leading to the orphanage is a road. Many residents of Chihuahua don't even know the orphanage exists.
But those who frequent Casa Hogar know of the small, unkept, bumpy, dirt road off of the highway that leads to the complex that more than 100 children call "mi casa" - my home.
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Orphanage director Fidel Rubio Alvarado and his wife, Mariana, are doing their best to help these children who have been abandoned and abused, orphaned or have run away from their homes.
Alvarado doesn't have much in the way of luxury or material items to offer the children, but he does tout that Casa Hogar provides a safe environment in which the children may grow up.
He receives only a little money from the Mexican government monthly (400 pesos or $40), so Alvarado has used much of his family's income as well as the generosity of others - including several people from the United States - to make ends meet.
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When Fidel Rubio Alvarado stands on his front porch and glances across at the Casa Hogar de la Misericordia, he realizes his dream has come true.
"My dream always has been to take kids from the trash and offer them a safe place to live," Rubio said in his native Spanish. "When I look out and see these kids, I know my dream has come true."
It was the goal of providing poverty-stricken children living on the streets of Chihuahua, Mexico, with a safe place to live that prompted Rubio to open Casa Hogar orphanage nearly 12 years ago.
A troubled youth himself, Rubio said he felt that after God offered him a second, third and fourth chance at life, he decided to dedicate himself to helping others receive those same opportunities.
Twelve years ago, while serving as a missionary in the mountain communities near Chihuahua, Rubio got the inspiration to start an orphanage.
"There were two kids from Chihuahua that came to my church who had been living on the streets and they were scared," he said. "They didn't have any food or any clothing."
At the time, Rubio said he and his wife, Mariana, felt compelled to help them.
"We really didn't quite understand what God had in store for us," he said. "But we knew these kids were in crisis."
Thanks to Bryan Kelsen, the photographer who accompanied Perez on the visit, for making the story available. You see pictures that Bryan took at the orphanage
here.
I can report that things have improved at the orphanage since their 2003 visit. A new septic system was installed (thanks to a donation from the company I work for), a greenhouse has been built to improve the variety of food and make the orphanage more sustainable, and a program has been set up to teach the older boys carpentry skills (thanks to a donation of tools from a US church). But the needs are still great and the resources are meager. Your support is much appreciated.
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