Hogar San Fransisco de Asis

I spent the better part of my week at the Hogar San Francisco de Asis.  The Hogar is a home for physically disabled children in Chacaclayo, a suburb about 30 minutes outside of Lima. 

For the last 30 or so years, Dr. Tony Lazzara has opened the doors of the Hogar to children in need of medical care and rehabilitation.  The children's medical issues range from cerebral palsy to tuberculosis to cleft pallets to heart and/or lung conditions to blindness to deafness to severe burns to a detached esophagous to deformed or loss of limbs and more.  Many kids are on crutches and many in wheelchairs.  There is one boy who has no arms and uses one of his feet to write and use utensils to feed himself. 

The Hogar is run by the doctor, who, from what I've heard, runs a tight ship.  Unfortunately, the Dr. was traveling while I was there and I didn't get to meet him.  (I think things were probably a bit more chaotic because of that too.) Then there are the Mamacitas, the women who cook the meals for the children.  They know the children very well.  They know who is allowed to get more food, who needs to be watched closely and who has special diets.  There are teachers who teach the older children in classrooms that adjoin the main building, and a social worker.  There are also the volunteers, which is what I was.  Many volunteers come and stay at the Hogar for months at a time, and some come for shorter periods of time.  While I was there there were three German girls, an Irish girl, a girl from Portland with her Texan grandfather, and a boy from New York.  All of them were staying between 2 and 6 months. 

To be honest I had a bit of a hard time connecting with the children.  Because the doctor wasn't there, I didn't know the children's stories.  I didn't know how they came to be at the Hogar or what their specific disabilities were (beyond what I could see.) It's difficult to be imaginative, because there are not many toys and in order to create a make believe game, I'd need to be able to communicate with them more.  But I tried to give them attention and affection. 

"Those kids need lots of hugs, Rach," my Mom told me.  And that is what I tried to do.  Many of the kids just want hugs or to hold your hand.   One little girl asked me to read her a book.  It was Alice and Wonderland, in Spanish, but there were only two pages.  She giggled the whole time, I'm sure due to the fact that I probablg mispronounced every other word.  As my brother Scott told me when I told him the language barrier was a bit difficult, "laughter is a universal language."  Truer words have never been spoken.

On a typical day at the Hogar the children begin waking up around 4:30am.  Breakfast is at 7 and volunteers should be downstairs around 6:45 to help carry the children who can't go down the stairs on their own.  The children say their prayers and eat.  Volunteers help them wash their hands before a meal, brush their teeth after, get refills and/or seconds and clean and wash the plates after.  The older kids are expected to clean their own plates from the table and help dry the dishes after they are washed.

From 9-11 it is baby hour when the volunteers are allowed to take the babies out of their cribs.  If its nice you can take the babies on a walk or out to the concrete courtyard that is the Hogar's play area.  There is a box of toys for the babies to play with.    During baby hour I just try and hold them and talk to them and give them as much love as I can.  I can't stand the thought that they spend so much time in their cribs, I just want them to feel love and human contact.   

Lunch is at noon, there's another baby hour from 3 to 4, and dinner is at 5.  Bedtime usually begins around 8.  In between those times volunteers are pretty free to do whatever they want, the kids play or go to school, and the Mamacitas are are almost constantly cooking.  On certain days volunteers and nurses take children to the hospital in Lima for various therapies.

I loved baby hour.  There was Eric, who had recently had his cleft pallet operation, Amyara a beautiful baby girl who looked about 5 months old, but was 1 year and had a heart condition and very weak lungs, Dayana, the sweetest little girl who was deaf, and Percy, a toddler with tons of energy.  Apparently Percy came to the orphanage emaciated because of a detached esophagous.  Francois, another toddler who is hard to keep up with, has tuberculosis of the spine.  Francois was living with his two uncles who also had tuberculosis and his drug addict grandmother before the Hogar.  Many of the kids go through rehabilitation and get treatment or their surgeries and go home, but some stay for a very long time, and some, like Percy and Francois are wards of the state, so when they are done at the Hogar, they go to an orphanage. 

One of the most difficult things at the Hogar is that there is no elevator, only stairs to get from the first level with the play area, school, and dining room.  Nurses and volunteers have to carry many of the children, even the older ones, upstairs which can be difficult and very painful for the kids.  One night I spotted one of the older girls as she made her way upstairs for the night.  It probably took her 15 minutes for what you or I could do in thirty seconds, but it was awe inspiring.  Instead of getting carried up, she raised herself from her wheelchair and made the slow, and what looked like, very painful journey upstairs... But she did it all on her own.  It's humbling to watch these kids accomplish physical achievements that I take for granted on a daily basis and makes me appreciate how simple my life is in comparison. 

There are 53 children at the Hogar and only three bedrooms and a nursery.  The kids sleep 2, 3, 4 to a bed.  If they're small enough, they sleep perpendicular on the bed to fit more.  Some sleep on mattresses on the floor and others on couches. 

As hard as it sounds, for many of the children it's all that they know, and all of them are lucky to be there.  Without the Hogar, they likely wouldn't be able to get the treatment they need. 

The kids at the Hogar are happy.  They have friends here.  They don't see each other as different, because everyone here is different.  One of the Hogar's mottos is that "it's what makes you different that makes you beautiful." With the exception of disabilities that inhibit them in various ways, the children of the Hogar play together and make up games and run around like every other kid.

The children eat meals and pray together.  They are, like many, an unconventional family.  There are the nurses, the Mamacitas, the volunteers and the Doctor.  Together they make one, ever-changing family unit.  I'm sad I didn't get to meet the Doctor, because I'm sure he is the patriarch, the glue that holds everything together.

But there is one thing that is very evident at the Hogar, there's a whole lot of love.  And though these kids may not have the best toys, or new clothes, or their own beds, or the most updated medical equipment, I am - and always have been - a firm believer that the most important component of raising a child is love, and that is one thing the Hogar excels at.

Below - photos of the children from the Hogar