Home for Children (Casa Para los Niņos)
Once the school (Close to You School) is open and there are sufficient funds, Close to You, Inc. will open a home for the abandoned, orphaned, and abused children of El Salvador.
WHO will benefit?
Children: So many children in El Salvador do not have a home or a family that is able to love and care for them. Close to You, Inc. wants to open a home for these children to give them a safe place, a family, and an education.
Adults: The home will offer job opportunities to dozens of unemployed adults. The unemployment rate is very high in El Salvador and the average salaries are very low.WHAT is the plan?
The goal of the Home is to not become a typical orphan asylum, but to function as a home and a family. Children will be able to have supervised contact with biological family members, but will be part of the healthy family at the Home. Adoption will not be allowed. Children will consider each other as brothers and sisters and will view adult volunteers and caregivers as parents. Close to You, Inc. wishes to create a safe environment where the children can grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and where they will be nurtured and loved. They will be educated to become productive citizens and be taught skills to allow them to become self-sufficient adults. The hope is that the children will remain in El Salvador and help to change their country for the better and to help others. The children will be taught work ethic through daily chores rewarded by allowances. They can do such things as working in the laundry room, helping in the kitchen, tutoring younger students, picking up toys, or washing dishes. Children will learn how healthy relationships function through giving, receiving, sharing, and having tolerance of others. They will have their basic needs provided for, such as food, clothing, shelter, medical and dental care, and love. They will be able to experience recreation and fellowship though activities, trips, team sports and involvement in church and school programs. In addition, the children will be taught how to improve their standard of living through basic hygiene and proper sanitation. And last but not least, the Home will provide the chance to instill good moral values and ethical standards in the children.
WHERE is this project going?
The Home will initially be operated in a rented home, but the eventual goal is to own property outside the city and to build a series of buildings in conjunction with the Close to You school. The dream is to have lots of green spaces with trees and plenty of room for the children to play, with a swimming pool and playgrounds. Supervision will be provided by adults, both volunteer and hired. Eventually we hope to have our own medical and dental clinics on the property. Also, we hope to have enough acreage to grow our own produce, and have room for greenhouses.
WHEN do we start?
We hope to open the school in 2004. When the school is running smoothly and can thus provide a place to educate the children we take in, and the funds needed, a Home for Children will be opened.
WHY is this project important?
In most places in the world today, children are being exploited or abandoned at an incredible rate. Close to You, Inc. hopes to help as many of these children in El Salvador as possible, to give them an opportunity to have a future and a chance to live a life that they choose for themselves. Education is vitally important for children to prepare to be self-sufficient, productive adults. But more importantly, children need a home and a family in order to grow to be socially, emotionally, and spiritually mature adults. All they need is a safe place full of love, and to have their physical needs met. All children have the right to be loved, to be educated, to play with other children, and the right to have a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. Unfortunately, too many children in this world are unloved, unwanted, uneducated, and exploited as cheap labor. Close to You, Inc. hopes to give children a hope and a future, one child at a time.
HOW can you help?
Currently, the greatest needs for this project are financial donations. Click here for more information. When the home is open, there will be a lot more needs, including volunteer help. Much aid involving clothing and food can be provided by large aid organizations such as Food for the Poor, in the U.S. An abbreviated list of needs for this project are listed below: