Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos

This weekend five of us traveled to an orphanage near Cuernavaca, about a 4-hour total trip. The orphanage is called Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) and is a part of a whole string of orphanages in several countries in Central and South America. It was founded more than 50 years ago and the one in Mexico that we visited is now located on an old sugar plantation hacienda. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I walked in, I was a little surprised. It looked like a little town! There are about 650 children living there ages 3 to middle-school equivalent (which varied, I met a girl who was 20) and 150 in a high school in Cuernavaca. NPH focuses on providing education, health care, and spiritual formation to the kids there. I'm going to go ahead and just list some of the things we learned/saw from the tour:

-The kids are separated into grade levels. "Kinder kids" are all in one huge room with a massive line of bunks. The woman that lives in the room with them has been there 20 years. Wow, what a vocation to be called to mother so many children at a time and through the years.

-There are lots of play structures, basketball/soccer courts, and a pool which helps with the supposedly disgustingly hot summers. It was pretty hot while we were there so I can only imagine...

-They have a clinic with a doctor, dentist, and 24-hour nurse. And a pharmacy!

-All of the kids are required to see the psychologist for the first bit of their stay, and then when they need it.

-One of the things that I thought was pretty cool is that there is this whole separate house area for kids who are a little more troubled or having a hard time. The woman who works there helps the to express themselves in art and other such productive manners.

View of the courtyard and two stations

-A beautiful chapel and courtyard with the stations of the cross. We went to a prayer service with them. Usually they have Mass but the priest was gone. So we read the Gospel and said a Rosary. Boy can those kids say a Hail Mary fast. I don't think I could move my mouth that rapidly if I tried.

-Being an ex-plantation, they have their own farm. They breed and raise animals, have a fish farm with tilapia (Did you know that the sex of these fish depends on the water temperature surrounding the eggs? Pretty fascinating! So they make the water warm at the beginning to make large male fish.) and grow crops. They make 3000 tortillas a day with their own corn. Sustainability is huge because they try not to depend too much on the outside, which can be unreliable.

-Sooo many great climbing trees. I've never seen so many in one place. They could charge and entry fee and start a business.

-Disney princesses are universal.

Apparently the Guardian Angels are near the bathrooms.
Pretty great.

The education they are receiving is pretty solid. Families from the outside pay to have their kids go there. The way the system works is that the kids are split into families, grow up, do two years of service after high school and then they get to go to the university of their choice through a Beca program (scholarship). This is pretty incredible considering that in Mexico, if you don't have money, you don't go to university. There is no federal funding etc.

Our main thing that we did there was plan an activity for the kinder kids. We brought a tons of mini pumpkins to finger paint and also played some games with them. However, for the games, I think they would have rather we just be jungle gyms so they could climb on us. Camp Keep's Arroostashaw (known by other names around the US, such as Atootsitah etc. ) kept their attention pretty well though.

I have to say I was pretty impressed by the facilities and services at this orphanage. I guess when I imagined an orphanage I thought of Annie and her crew dressed in rags and singing Hard Knock Life. These kids are far from living in luxury though. They share clothes, live in bunk rooms, and eat very simply. However, this seemed like a very complete system to help break the cycle of poverty. Orphan to college graduate and a loving family in the years in between.

In this tile painting, Fr. Wassen, the founder, is handing kids up into the tree. The tree depicts the things NPH stands for. Among others, there are pictures of school, family, sharing, playing, bunk beds, culture, and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Fr. Wassen started NPH in 1954 when a child was arrested for stealing the collection at his church. Instead of leaving him in jail, Fr. Wassen adopted him and 8 or 9 others and started NPH!

Check out the website if you want to learn more. It's a pretty incredible organization. Thanks for reading!