Orphan’s Hope Project Blog

Four adult volunteers arrived at the orphanage today in Guatemala. They are there until Monday morning, May 17th.

And on Monday morning, May 17th, 4 more volunteers arrive from Pennsylvania. They are there for 5 days.

On May 27th, another volunteer arrives for a week.

Phew… thank goodness for all these volunteers, helpers, supporters and fans. We appreciate them. They take time out of their lives to spend time with our children and to enrich their lives. The volunteers pay their own costs to fly to Guatemala. They raise $ for the orphanage, treat the kids to special things and share their hearts. Also, think about the time away from their jobs, homes and families. What would we do without them?

Today is Mother’s Day in the US. Happy Mother’s Day to all.

Monday, May 10th is Mother’s Day in Guatemala. It doesn’t matter what day of the week May 10th falls on in Guatemala, May 10th is always Mother’s Day.

Thanks to all the moms, grandmas, sisters, aunts, cousins, neighbors, co-workers friends and friends of friends who help us take care of these deserving kids. We appreciate all of you and your big hearts.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Yes, we’re on the right path for building the girls’ house. Last weekends efforts brought in about $6,000 in donations from the Melia Family Foundation. Of course we haven’t built the house yet… but we wanted a picture of the kids with a Thank You banner for the Melia Group Foundation to see.. to inspire them. These are some of our kids and they are standing on the vacant lot where the house will be built.

Woo hoo… we are on our way to doing more great things. Thanks Melia Family Foundation.

Yes, postcards are going out to help us with our fundraiser. Check this out!

The Melia Family fundraiser kicks off in Oklahoma City on April 8th…. this week. This fundraiser is going to be a year long effort. Can we build a new house for girls? Oh yes, yes we can!

Our goal is to raise $72,400 this year… to build the new house. We have the land…. we have the cost estimates… we have the labor. Now… we just need the $.

Will we do it? Oh yes we will!

It’s almost the end of March 2010 and we have been busy. Where does the time go? The kids are doing well, they just got their term report cards and life is moving along.

We’ve been excited and busy for the past couple of weeks here in the US. We are working on the launch of a major fundraiser to build a new girls’ home in Guatemala. The new girls’ home will be just outside the existing orphanage and will be part of the orphanage, yet separate. The land has been cleared and we will soon be building a block wall around the property. That will shield the property from curious drive by/walk by lookers and it will also allow us to deliver and store building materials at the site with less chance of theft.

The fundraiser will be launched on April 8 in Oklahoma City. It will continue for the balance of the year. There will be more fund raising activities in July in Orlando, Florida. After that, Dallas, Texas. Yep… we are hoping that it will be wildly successful. The goal is to raise the $72,400 that’s needed to build a two story home that will house 25 girls.

So…that’s all I can say right now. More news after April 8th. I’m hoping to get some updated pictures of the land and of the concrete blocks and wall. When I get them, I will post them.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. This could be huge!!!!!

Oh… and Happy Spring to you and yours!

Take a look. We just posted pictures from the January 2010 trip to the orphanage. Check the website for all the photo albums, including these latest photos.
We hope you enjoy the pictures of the kids, the colors of Guatemala and the activities.
Thanks.

Yes, it’s hard to believe that it’s 2010 already. Hogar Miguel Magone celebrated their 13 year anniversary in January 2010. So many changes have been made since the opening of the orphanage. Wonderful changes continue to take place each year and it is truly a great place for the children.

I was able to spend the month of January at the orphanage. We had some cold days and nights, as low as 48 degrees (F) in my room sometimes. No, none of the rooms have heat or heaters. When the wind is blowing in through the spaces, those sweatpants and jackets sure feel good. January usually is the coldest month in Guatemala but this January was really cold.

The kids finally started back to school on the last Friday in January. Normally, they return to school in mid January, which is the start of a brand new school year. This year, the public school teachers went on strike so the kids got a longer vacation. The private school and instituto kids started while I was there. I always look forward to walking the kids to school in the morning. Many days, we still walked to Satelite, for the exercise, and to get the kids out of the orphanage. I love those walks.

A couple of times, I took large groups of boys on adventure hikes. The first hike was about 6 miles long and the boys ended up playing in a creek. Some got wet up to mid chest but it was ok. I was the only adult on this hike ….with 31 boys. They had fun, we had snacks and everyone enjoyed the diversity of hiking to a new place. But we did ask them to wash out their own clothes when they got back to the orphanage. Those were some muddy, wet kids!

The last adventure hike that we took in January was through the woods, up and down dusty hills & terraced farm land and we ended up at a waterfall. That was a great hike, the weather was warm and we were gone for hours and hours. We ran into some locals that were at the pila, washing up. Luckily, we had enough incaparina (a protein drink) and energy bars to share with the 10 locals, some adult men and some children. Our boys had the same snacks and they also ate sandwiches, but not until we left the locals and started on our way back. I had to almost fight with the dogs a few times. The dogs wanted the ham sandwiches. It was a great adventure. The kids wore shorts this time and we were prepared for the water. They climbed the waterfall, played around in the pool and enjoyed it thoroughly. I hope to have a photo album posted on the web site by March 10th. Look for it and you’ll see some of the pictures of the boys in their bright blue Nike shorts, compliments of Richmond Hilltop YMCA. Oh yes, the boys loved getting new Nike shorts.

More news soon…. I promise.

Diane

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2009 has been a wonderfully productive year for Orphan’s Hope Project and for the orphanage. In 2009, Orphan’s Hope Project, Inc. was able to wire $20,000 US, directly to the orphanage account in Guatemala, for salaries, utility bills, supplies, improvements, repairs, etc. $20,000 goes a long way in Guatemala. Our water bill at the orphanage is usually about $600 a month. We use gas for cooking so there’s always a bill to be paid, for filling up the gas tanks. The electrical bill is sky high… kids are afraid of the dark and for security, we leave lights on. Staff needs to get paid, school uniforms need to be purchased, we need gas for the vehicles, there are car & van repair costs, construction and on going maintenance is a constant & on and on. I know you understand. When it’s for 60 kids, plus staff, the costs escalate. Just imagine running an orphanage with about a dozen large buildings, lots of classrooms, play areas, bathrooms, a bakery, a carpenter shop, a church and all on a big, uphill parcel of land. You can just imagine how grateful they are to receive approximately $1675 a month from Orphan’s Hope Project, Inc. to pay some of these bills and salaries.

Well, we don’t stop there. In addition to the quarterly wires to the Guatemalan bank account, we provide many other things for the orphanage. We bought shoes for all the kids this year….three times! And, we’re buying their school uniform shoes again in January. We shipped lots and lots of shirts (over 600 shirts this year), underwear, over 75 blankets, binders, other shirts, backpacks, thousands of heavy duty plastic bags, a new heavy duty 42 qt. pressure cooker, school supplies, notebooks, hundreds of pens, Rosetta Stone language programs, 100 new cloth (and reversible) sling bags, post it note notepads, high lighter pens, flash lights, lanyards, calculators, picture frames, hats, pajamas, jackets, Nike shorts, Nike sweat pants, 4 laptop computers and a lot of other items. The items were all new… and were donated by various businesses and individuals. 96 new Oakland Raiders backpacks arrive at the orphanage on January 4, 2010.

In addition, Orphan’s Hope Project buys the ink for the computer printers, we buy lots of paper for the orphanage, we bought a new printer this year, we buy office supplies, storage containers, various food items, kitchen utensils and supplies & more. Orphan’s Hope Project upgraded the internet service at the hogar this year. We also pay for the internet service and we pay it six months in advance. We are now allowing some of our older boys to have Facebook accounts. They are learning how to use the computer!

The boys love getting special food made for them when our workers are there…pizza, ice cream, oatmeal with raisins, pancakes on Sundays, cornbread, special soups, special salads, etc. If if needs to be bought or replenished, we buy it. We are giving them a better life.

In early January 2010, we are ordering new mattresses for all of the beds. Orphan’s Hope Project has budgeted $8,000 for the purchase of 60 new mattresses, fitted quilted mattress pads, new pillows for everyone and new blankets. This will be a big improvement and all the old mattresses and pillows will be given away to families in the local village who don’t have beds. If the old mattresses are too nasty, they will be thrown out. We have a work team coming in February and we’ll scour the dorm rooms, paint them if necessary and then bring in all the new mattresses, mattress pads, pillows and blankets.

The new chapel was finished this year…complete with a beautiful metal door, chandeliers, stained glass windows and beautiful wrought iron seating outside.

We have an ozone water filtration system now and that means purified drinking water for all of us. We have a gym on the orphanage property, which is used by the older boys. We have more musical instruments and a few older boys have formed a band. We have broken ground for another classroom. A new chicken coop will be built soon.

We had a medical and vision clinic in January 2009. The local villagers came to the orphanage in droves, for 3 days, and got free medical care, check ups, prescription medicines, eye exams
and new glasses, if they needed them. Of course our children got the same services.

The kids went on various outings this year. The outings break up the monotony of orphanage life and the outings broaden their horizons, show them more of the city, farms, botanical gardens, swimming pools and other educational field trips. We went out in the evening a couple of times…with the older boys, to dances. Those nights were a hit. Some of the better behaved boys got to see the Harlem Globetrotters perform in Guatemala City. The boys saw movies, they visited an agricultural school, some got to go on overnights to Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala, and more. Some kids spent a couple of days with families for Christmas…families who take them in for a few days to show them family life.

There is just so much than still needs to be done. We are a work in progress but the orphanage is very much improved over the past 3 years since we have been involved.

We have a few new gung ho volunteers…who return again and again. I am thankful for all the work groups and volunteers that visit and work at the orphanage. You know who you are!

We broke ground for a new house, for girls, just outside our security wall. We are hoping to obtain funding for this 4 bedroom house so that the construction can continue. The budget for the construction of the house is about $70,000.

We are planning a 2nd Christmas celebration for mid January. We have 159 kids on our list. Airline Ambassadors International and Global Legacy have teamed up with Julian Roberts and plans are in the works for that.

We’ll be headed to Guatemala on the 31st of December, arriving on January 1st. What a great way to start out the new year! There’s so much to do. Two big boxes (crate size) have already been shipped and they’ll arrive on January 4th.

We have a new power point presentation/update on the first page of our web site. We hope you’ll take a moment to look at it. The link is in the middle of the text on the first page. Look for Hogar Miguel Magone Update on that page.

Thanks for your support in the past and in the future. Thank you for your good wishes and prayers and remember….all your donations are tax deductible. We have no overhead so this is one non-profit foundation that maximizes every single dollar that is donated. Donations can be made on line through PayPal….e-check is very easy to do, it’s safe and there’s no stamp to find, no envelope to address and before you know it, we will be using your donation for something good. If you can’t make a donation, that’s ok too. I did want you to read about our project and what we are accomplishing. Every $, every new shirt, every donation helps.

Thanks for your time, thanks for caring and thanks for you.

Próspero Año Nuevo!.

Diane Springer
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Founder
Orphan’s Hope Project, Inc.

Well, just because we haven’t blogged lately doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. The end of the year is always a busy time at the orphanage. Groups come and go, Christmas presents get bought and wrapped and the excitement of the kids is evident in their eyes, their activities and in the air. It’s a magical time. Celebrating Christmas will be a new experience for some of our kids. In addition to our own kids, we have many poor families in the nearby village that we want to provide gifts for. Our Christmas list, just for the kids, has 159 names on it. How would you like to have to shop for 159 kids?

January will be another busy month. The children start their new school year on January 15th. We will be buying school supplies, shoes, uniforms and we’ll be filling their new backpacks with those supplies very soon.

Another project that is coming to a beautiful finish is the mattress project. In January 2010, Orphan’s Hope Project will be ordering new beds for all of the boys. The mattresses will be custom made, with vinyl covers on them to protect them. We are also getting mattress pads for all of the boys’ beds and new pillows. Yes, we are making progress, making improvements and have lots to do.

Two boxes were shipped to the orphanage this past Friday. They will arrive January 3rd or 5th. Inside one of the boxes are the new backpacks (96 of them), which were donated again by the Oakland Raiders. The boxes have many other things in them… don’t want to tell all in case one of our kids is reading this blog!

Yes, I will be there very soon and I’m excited to be going again. Please have a wonderful holiday and to all of our donors, thanks for making it a special time for our children.