Recruiting and Home Visits

So as I mentioned before, our week has been busy, looking for new kids, conducting interviews with the parents, and checking in on some of the families, just to see how they are living. What we found was some of the worst situations I have ever seen.
Every family has their own story, all stories that broke my heart. One family, a grandmother raising her 16 grandchildren all under one roof. The parents have all taken off somewhere, and this grandmother is raising 16 kids aged 5-15 all by herself. Another family, with two kids, lost their Dad 3 years ago in a random act of violence.

We did a lot of home visits this weekend, and went into some VERY rough homes. Some people live in concrete houses, but with no windows...imagine the heat! Others live in shacks made of scrap metal and wood. Everyone has some sort of roof...all leaking. And if you have ever experienced rain in the tropics, you would know that when it rains it POURS! Most families we met with had a fridge, but one that did not work. The sleeping situation in these homes was no better...most of the time there were multiple people to a bed, if there was one. In one home, there was a 7 and 9 year old sleeping together in a crib.
To be quite honest, it is hard for me to throughouly describe what these living situations are really like. It takes all five senses to truely understand it; the smells, the heat, the constant itchiness from being bitten by the bugs in these homes, the look in someone's eyes when they are telling you thier stories, and asking for help.

So when Cathy is talking to the new potential families, the kids all tend to follow us. So I decided that I would take the kids somewhere else and play some games. We had a HUGE game of Stella Ella Hola going, but the kids here do not know that game. So I taught it to them and they loved it. What started out as a game with a few girls turned into a huge games with a lot of boys and girls. The kids caught on really quickly to the words, and they loved the game so much that I think I sang the song 100 times...seriously.
I also met two babies...one was 10 months and the other was 2 months. They were soooo cute. Their older siblings took good care of them...the Mother's let the kids take the babies outside because it is so hot and small in the homes.


I am really excited about all of these new families. We have recruited a lot of younger kids, in hopes that we will be able to influence and provide opportunities that will keep them off the streets.