A Holistic Approach

Our 2-week training period is almost over and we have been given tours of all parts of the ranch from the Cocina, Garden, and School to the medical facilities co-located on the site. We have become acquainted with many of the directors to get the background and philosophy on the ranch as well as introductions and discussions with staff that we (the new group of 8 volunteers) will be working with.

                                            Chapel at the One World Surgical Center

                                                Interesting Plant Outside the NPH National Director's Office

We have also been given tours of NPH outlying community reach projects, and there are many! For example, today we went up to the nearby mountain town of Mata de Platano where NPH has a community center that provides nutritional and medical support for the surrounding area where people are remote and live in very rural environments with insufficient resources to obtain adequate health services.  One of the staff was a young full time Physical Therapist who had a fully outfitted room.  He said they could actually use 3 full time PTs with 2 of them enabling home visits. This center also has a classroom to tutor kids and their parents in basic reading, writing, and math. One additional program worth mentioning is the Chica Poderosa program to enable young women to have more options than is common in this culture now.  Many girls only get through 6th grade and then start a family. A similar program is provided for young men to teach respect and honor of the woman in this machismo culture.

                                            Kids Playing Soccer at the Mata de Platano Community Center

Other programs that we have toured are:

·       Casa Angeles in Tegucigalpa that cares for severely handicapped children

·       Hermanos Mayores – also in Tegucigalpa - that helps children that have graduated from the ranch go on to University or trade schools

·       Centro Familiar San Francisco in the nearby town of Talanga that offers childcare and tutoring for single working mothers

·       Casa Mi Esperanza in Catacamas, which is about a 3-hour drive from the Ranch, is a foster home for children when family cannot be immediately found to care for them.

It is apparent that NPH has grown from a simple home for children to more of a Holistic approach for children. We have been impressed with the depth of support offered from basic security, food, and shelter to medical (both physical and mental) help and spiritual nourishment. But most importantly is the feeling of love and family support from the community and the expectations of personal responsibility that the children are raised with.

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