Summary
The Capstone Project “Hope for Children” was a marvelous project, not only did it teach us various lessons of life; it helped us connect to a global issue of child abandonment. When we first choose this project Fatima and I started with a vision of creating long lasting friendships with abandoned children.
Many people think that once a child is given a home, or a shelter such as an orphanage or a foster home, the child will feel safe and forget its hurtful past. In reality, many of these children are self insecure, fearful and emotionally hurt. We sought to be able to volunteer in at least two orphanages and become friends with the children in order to help them regain their social life and self esteem.
Sadly things didn’t go as we had hoped so; many orphanages denied us for volunteering because of our age. We continued trying for several months, sending emails as well as volunteering applications to local foster homes in the Houston area. We contacted several foster homes such as; The House of Hope (Casa de Esperanza), Byrd’s Foster Home, DePechin Children’s Center, Boys and Girls Harbor, and Presbyterian Children’s Home. We continued calling multiple times, and although we were quite insistent many foster homes did not let us volunteer.
In March 2011 Gracewood showed a positive feedback, seeing our great enthusiasm in their project, they set up a volunteering opportunity for us. Our first visit to Gracewood was on March 8, 2011; we were greeted very nicely and introduced to everybody. However, we found out that Gracewood was not a foster home of CPS (Child Protective Services); it was a residential home for single mothers. We were very surprised and wondered how it was confused with an orphanage, in the internet’s search engine it was listed under foster homes. We were told these single mothers were at risk of becoming homeless, and giving their children for adoption. These children were not abandoned, but their mothers needed help taking care of the kids as well as giving them some extra love and attention. The mothers were exhausted after a long day of work, and had group meetings on Tuesdays, this is where we came in and helped take care of the children. The home we were assigned to resided three boys; two 3 year olds and a 2 year old.
We had a great experience at Gracewood although it might not have been what we had expected, the children were very nice and heart taking. We were not able to take pictures of our first visit, since we thought it would be very disrespectful to start taking pictures. On our second visit April 21, 2011 we were able to capture some pictures of the kids watching a movie and dancing. On this visit we also decided part, or perhaps half of the money we fundraised would be donated towards anything Gracewood might need.
This gave our project a whole turn around, since we wanted to donate the money towards an orphanage, but the people at Gracewood were very kind to us and we fell in love with the kids. We wanted to help the children and the mothers there who are going through a lot of struggles on a daily basis. We were very proud of these mothers, since they continue to work every day to provide for their children. They are women who struggle and fight for their children. There are many mothers who do not have the same opportunities these women have such as having a shelter like Gracewood, and are forced to live in the streets with their children and might not be able to sleep or eat for days. This is an issue which also leads to child abandonment since mothers are not able to feed their children, and forced to abandon them. Many people are unaware of this, but it’s a sad reality. We were glad that we could help Gracewood, and we will continue to visit them as often as we can, or as they require our help.
In April 2011 we received a call from the foster home Boys and Girls Harbor; we finally had a foster home in which we could volunteer. After a background check and various phone calls to verify our information and recent addresses we set up a volunteering date for April 28,2011. The volunteer coordinator Jonathan told us our age was not a problem and we could bring along other people as long as they submitted their information for a background check. A background check was required to volunteer, to be able to keep the children safe with people who were reliable and had no criminal record.
On our first day volunteering we were given a tour of the foster home. The living conditions were very decent, and the environment was very peaceful. It was a wonderful yet nervous experience. Our projects main purpose was achieved we were finally at an orphanage; our Projects main purpose was achieved. We were shocked on the diversity of children in this orphanage. Some of the children were very quiet and isolated, in the other hand most of the children were playful and got along well with the rest of the children.
Seeing many children who are less fortunate, made us realize the severity of this issue. There are so many things materialism objects this children lack such as; clothes, toys, shoes. Many of things cannot be provided to the children, because there is insufficient money to provide for all of them. We will donate the rest of the money we fundraised towards this foster home, it will not be a big amount of money but we are sure it will be help.
A stop must be put to child abandonment, and raising awareness in the community might help the numbers of children abandoned decrease, as well as give knowledge to people who are unaware of this issue. We learned so much from these few visits to Gracewood and Boys and Girls Harbor, and applied it to the knowledge we gained from studying this subject.
We as well became more open to children needs and learned to communicate with them, while taking care of them and making sure they felt comfortable being with us. Our main priority was to make the children feel safe and protected with us, although we were complete strangers to them. We observed many of them children and they were in need for attention. Many of the children were fighting to grab our attention; we were shocked at this because we having younger siblings had never seen such scarcity of children needed for love. We tried connecting to most of them by providing attention to all the children; they were wonderful children who were able to capture our hearts.
We will also be returning to Boys and Girls Harbor on May 4, 2010 and will take pictures as well as record a video that we can show our teachers, classmates and to the community. We hope this video and pictures will show people a better view of child abandonment, and raise knowledge so people are more aware of this subject. These visits were a great experience, and we are looking towards all our next volunteering visits in the future.
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The Capstone Project “Hope for Children” was a marvelous project, not only did it teach us various lessons of life; it helped us connect to a global issue of child abandonment. When we first choose this project Fatima and I started with a vision of creating long lasting friendships with abandoned children.
Many people think that once a child is given a home, or a shelter such as an orphanage or a foster home, the child will feel safe and forget its hurtful past. In reality, many of these children are self insecure, fearful and emotionally hurt. We sought to be able to volunteer in at least two orphanages and become friends with the children in order to help them regain their social life and self esteem.
Sadly things didn’t go as we had hoped so; many orphanages denied us for volunteering because of our age. We continued trying for several months, sending emails as well as volunteering applications to local foster homes in the Houston area. We contacted several foster homes such as; The House of Hope (Casa de Esperanza), Byrd’s Foster Home, DePechin Children’s Center, Boys and Girls Harbor, and Presbyterian Children’s Home. We continued calling multiple times, and although we were quite insistent many foster homes did not let us volunteer.
In March 2011 Gracewood showed a positive feedback, seeing our great enthusiasm in their project, they set up a volunteering opportunity for us. Our first visit to Gracewood was on March 8, 2011; we were greeted very nicely and introduced to everybody. However, we found out that Gracewood was not a foster home of CPS (Child Protective Services); it was a residential home for single mothers. We were very surprised and wondered how it was confused with an orphanage, in the internet’s search engine it was listed under foster homes. We were told these single mothers were at risk of becoming homeless, and giving their children for adoption. These children were not abandoned, but their mothers needed help taking care of the kids as well as giving them some extra love and attention. The mothers were exhausted after a long day of work, and had group meetings on Tuesdays, this is where we came in and helped take care of the children. The home we were assigned to resided three boys; two 3 year olds and a 2 year old.
We had a great experience at Gracewood although it might not have been what we had expected, the children were very nice and heart taking. We were not able to take pictures of our first visit, since we thought it would be very disrespectful to start taking pictures. On our second visit April 21, 2011 we were able to capture some pictures of the kids watching a movie and dancing. On this visit we also decided part, or perhaps half of the money we fundraised would be donated towards anything Gracewood might need.
This gave our project a whole turn around, since we wanted to donate the money towards an orphanage, but the people at Gracewood were very kind to us and we fell in love with the kids. We wanted to help the children and the mothers there who are going through a lot of struggles on a daily basis. We were very proud of these mothers, since they continue to work every day to provide for their children. They are women who struggle and fight for their children. There are many mothers who do not have the same opportunities these women have such as having a shelter like Gracewood, and are forced to live in the streets with their children and might not be able to sleep or eat for days. This is an issue which also leads to child abandonment since mothers are not able to feed their children, and forced to abandon them. Many people are unaware of this, but it’s a sad reality. We were glad that we could help Gracewood, and we will continue to visit them as often as we can, or as they require our help.
In April 2011 we received a call from the foster home Boys and Girls Harbor; we finally had a foster home in which we could volunteer. After a background check and various phone calls to verify our information and recent addresses we set up a volunteering date for April 28,2011. The volunteer coordinator Jonathan told us our age was not a problem and we could bring along other people as long as they submitted their information for a background check. A background check was required to volunteer, to be able to keep the children safe with people who were reliable and had no criminal record.
On our first day volunteering we were given a tour of the foster home. The living conditions were very decent, and the environment was very peaceful. It was a wonderful yet nervous experience. Our projects main purpose was achieved we were finally at an orphanage; our Projects main purpose was achieved. We were shocked on the diversity of children in this orphanage. Some of the children were very quiet and isolated, in the other hand most of the children were playful and got along well with the rest of the children.
Seeing many children who are less fortunate, made us realize the severity of this issue. There are so many things materialism objects this children lack such as; clothes, toys, shoes. Many of things cannot be provided to the children, because there is insufficient money to provide for all of them. We will donate the rest of the money we fundraised towards this foster home, it will not be a big amount of money but we are sure it will be help.
A stop must be put to child abandonment, and raising awareness in the community might help the numbers of children abandoned decrease, as well as give knowledge to people who are unaware of this issue. We learned so much from these few visits to Gracewood and Boys and Girls Harbor, and applied it to the knowledge we gained from studying this subject.
We as well became more open to children needs and learned to communicate with them, while taking care of them and making sure they felt comfortable being with us. Our main priority was to make the children feel safe and protected with us, although we were complete strangers to them. We observed many of them children and they were in need for attention. Many of the children were fighting to grab our attention; we were shocked at this because we having younger siblings had never seen such scarcity of children needed for love. We tried connecting to most of them by providing attention to all the children; they were wonderful children who were able to capture our hearts.
We will also be returning to Boys and Girls Harbor on May 4, 2010 and will take pictures as well as record a video that we can show our teachers, classmates and to the community. We hope this video and pictures will show people a better view of child abandonment, and raise knowledge so people are more aware of this subject. These visits were a great experience, and we are looking towards all our next volunteering visits in the future.
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