I was given the opportunity to go down to Nicaragua for spring break with 50 other students from Virginia Tech. The organization I went with is called Nicaraguan Orphan Fund and the mission of this organization is two fold. First to offer hope and love to children who live in orphanages and in extreme poverty (meaning their family earn less that $1 a day). We are there to show them that they still matter and are worth loving, as many of them have been abandoned or verbally, sexually or physically abused. We are to tell their stories to the world and continue returning to build relationships with them. The other part of the mission is to change the lives of the students that go down. There are many awful places that we saw and the experience shows us how to love compassionately and recklessly.

We spent our week in Managua with three different groups of people. The majority of the week was spent with kids who live in Nueva Vida. Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua in 1998, wiping out most of the countryside. People started flooding to Managua because the government was putting up temporary houses made of plastic. Since then the people have never left and there are now over 10,000 living in urban slums. This is a very hard place to live because the government does not touch that area, so gangs rule each street and it has the worst drug trafficking area in the whole country. When we went into Nueva Vida we stayed within the grounds of their church and feeding center, which is barb-wired off. Throughout the week we got to take the kids out to the beach, the pool, to play soccer and to a pizza dinner. At Nueva Vida we repainted their church and feeding center and helped at the feeding center. They feed 300 kids 5 days a week. For most of these kids that meal is the only one they eat for the day. There is also a need in at area to feed another 1200 children. We spent a lot of time just playing with the kids. Most young kids (under 4) are looked after by their older siblings and the parents are nowhere in sight. For as much as we tried to love these children we could not compare to the love that they gave us. They throw themselves at your legs and give you a huge hugs. For as little as they have they are so joyful just to be living another day and so appreciative that were we there. The last day we brought them 110 bags of donations including clothes, shoes, medical supplies, school supplies and toys.

Another group of people that we spent a day with was 40 prostitutes and their families from Managua. These women range in age from 14 to mid-30s. Most have multiple young children. For them prostitution is more of a choice because they can earn more money for their families. However, they are in need of so much love and care. Most of their families have disowned them and their clients are government officials who come in cracked out and abuse them as well. They spend very little time with their children because they must work everyday. We took them to a church and park and threw a big carnival for them. We got to sit down and eat lunch with them and hear their stories. Then we brought in a moon bounce (which they call a brinka brinka), had fake tattoos, popcorn, cotton candy, princess crowns and a piñata. The women were so appreciative that they had a full day to spend with their families. At the end we brought everyone back inside the church. We had brought clothes and toys for their children and provided them with enough food for 2 dinners, so that they didn’t have to work for 2 days.

The last group of people that we worked with was children that live on the trash dump of Managua called La Chereca. There are 800-1500 people that live on the dump, no one knows for sure how many. These children live in some of the worst conditions in the world. They are extremely malnourished, you can tell because their hair starts turning blonde due to lack of proper nutrition. The dump burns 24/7 and you breathe smoke the entire time you are there. They have extremely poor hygiene and the kids teeth start rotting at 5 years old. A few years ago the government tried to move the people out. They put up pre-fab homes a little ways from the dump. The people torn them apart and moved back to the dump. It is more profitable for them to live where they work and because they needed a sense of ownership for their home. We went into the dump in the morning. They have a school that goes from pre-K through 3rd grade, then the kids are pulled out of school to work. We went to the school and did a work project where we cleared an area of rocks and planted bushes for the school to do organized games. In the afternoon we took 65 kids out of the dump and to a park. These kids only leave the dump 2-3 times a year, so needless to say it was chaos. They were so excited, we gave them squirt guns and had a water balloon fight and had another piñata.

That is the brief overview of what we did, but there are so many little stories about the kids and different things that we saw. It really makes you think about what is important in life. They have so little, but they are so happy and they value people for who they are, not what they have. It is so freeing to be down there and just let your guards down and go crazy with the kids. If would want to know more about my trip or how you can help these kids please ask! I would love to talk about it!