Thursday, December 15, 2011

Still feeling the effects of the Earthquake

On November the 16, 2011, over a year and a half since the 7.2 earthquake struck Honduras students and teachers noticed a visible change in the gradient of the floor of one of the classrooms on the second floor of Holy Family School (the Our Little Roses Ministries bilingual school on the campus of Our Little Roses). It is a wonderful school where 20 of our girls have the opportunity to learn English alongside other girls and boys from the community.

 
You can imagine the surprise on the student's faces when they arrived to class only to notice that the floor was beginning to sink. The teacher reported what was happening to the floor.
Immediately the director of the school removed the students from the classroom in order to make an analysis of this unexpected development.


After taking down the false ceiling, the mystery of the slanting floor was revealed. The steel beams holding up the second floor had been doubled in a wave-like form, obviously from a tremendous force which we can only attribute to the earthquake. We thought we had only suffered minor damage during the earthquake but now the real truth has been unveiled. We are still fortunate that more damage was not done.     

The estimated cost of the repairs is $8,051.80.  If you like to donate or assist, please contact us at olr@ourlittleroses.org.  

Friday, October 28, 2011

BACK TO SCHOOL- September 2011

OUR LITTLE ROSES MINISTRIES - A MINISTRY OF LOVE, HOPE AND JUSTICE San Pedro Sula, Honduras

Written by Mrs. Mayra
 

At the age of two years old, Rocío dreams of going to school. She tries on her sister’s uniforms and backpack and she says: "I am ready for school”. She doesn't understand why she can't go to school, she says "I am big, I can run", but the reality is that she is still too young and she has to wait one more year in order to turn 3 years old, which is the required age for Pre Kinder.

Going back to HFBS School is a big event at Our Little Roses Ministries. The girls started classes at the end of August, but since July, the staff has been making sure that the girls will have new uniforms, new school supplies and everything they may need in order to fulfill the important role they will play at school.

(Rocio)
This year there are three new Roses attending Holy Family Bilingual School. Two in Pre Kinder: Brigit, 3 years old, Critzenn, 4 years old and one girl in eight grade: Bianca, 14 years old. This makes a total of 20 girls attending HFBS. This is a year full of expectations and new challenges.


Holy Family Bilingual School was founded to meet the educational needs of the girls from Our Little Roses, especially for the girls that get to the Home at an early age, so they can be prepared beginning at Pre-School. Unfortunately, not all the girls are able to finish a bilingual education because they grew up in abject poverty and they came to us malnourished. 


The consequences are devastating for being able to learn because they don't develop the ability to manage two languages at the same time. Those girls that face serious learning problems are moved to Spanish speaking language schools where they learn to read and write in their native language with a Spanish only educational curriculum. When they are ready, they can take English classes so they can communicate with sponsors, friends and visitors.


(Tania, Diana, Astrid, Ismelda)
Our Little Roses girls know exactly what they want to be when they grow-up: Leyli, an eight grader, has dreamed ever since she was 7 years old that she would like to be a Doctor. After 8 years, she continues with the same dream to be a doctor, "I want to save children's lives", she said with a smile. Katherine says: "I would like to be a flight attendant" "I love tourism". Katherine is a very talkative girl, she is not afraid to face life, she loves soccer as well.

Sofia, a kindergarten student says: "I want to be a “Miss", meaning that she wants to be a "teacher". (Sometimes the children call the women teachers at HFBS Miss.)


What goes through the minds of these little girls? 

When interviewing Brigit, (she is only 3 years old and just started Pre Kinder) she said: "I want to be Mrs. Mayra". Mayra is a member of the staff and her position is Administrative Assistant to the Executive Director. Brigit can't explain exactly what she wants but she has people in mind that she would like to be like. Maybe in two years she will say that she wants to be a dentist or some other career. The amazing thing is that they all have dreams and they all are working for what they want.


After a day of classes the girls return to the Home singing what they have learned or playing the teacher's role with the other girls. The older girls have lunch and then change from uniforms to shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops in order to start doing homework or studying for classes the next day. They all are excited and very enthusiastic that school has begun again so that they can continue to transform their lives into what they want to be in the future.


(Aylin and Heydi)


(Twins: Ana Ruth and Ana Cecilia)

















HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO MAKE OUR GIRLS REACH THEIR DREAMS?
The answer is by sponsoring the education of one of our Roses. Any amount for education is welcome. Your support will enable our girls to soar to reach their dreams.


THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO TRANSFORM A GIRL'S LIFE!! 
For more information about OLRM: www.ourlittleroses.org
e.mail: nprdiana@aol.com or ourlittleroses@yahoo.com

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011

October 2011 News

OUR LITTLE ROSES MINISTRIES - A MINISTRY OF LOVE, HOPE AND JUSTICE San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Written by Mrs. Mayra

Honduras has an estimated population of almost eight million people. (67.3% (4.992.792) of the population are under 30 years old and 63% of the population lives in poverty.) 1. Honduras became independent from Spain in 1821 and all Hondurans celebrate its independence on September 15.
Sihan, Katherine, Astrid, Tania, Ana Ruth & Ricci Mejía. 














The girls from Our Little Roses Ministries are always on the first row to participate in the different activities that the schools have to celebrate. Independence Day. This year was not the exception and all of the girls got involved to commemorate this important date. Some of them played in the band, and others were cheerleaders.


CHILDREN DAY- SEPTEMBER 10
Ismelda
















High school students from Holy Family Bilingual School celebrated Children Day with the girls from Our Little Roses. The girls received gifts, and had fun with games and a talent show where both groups showed off their talents. They also enjoyed a delicious lunch that the students offered them. 


LIVING AT OUR LITTLE ROSES MINISTRIES
Vanesa, Jackeline, Ingrid, Iris, Damaris, Kathy & Suyapa

Living in an orphanage could not be an outstanding experience, but living at Our Little Roses makes a difference. OLRM is NOT an orphanage, it is a HOME. It is a peaceful and loving place where the girls are loved and cared for. Being part of the transformation of the girls is also a long life transformational experience for the staff involved in OLRM.

It is heartbreaking to see the new girls the very first day they are moved from IHNFA (Honduran Governmental shelter) to OLRM. It is so sad to see their little faces, so sad, without a vision for the future and without hope. They are full of loneliness and hopeless, but at OLR they find love, companionship, friendship and the sisterhood. They come to realize that they too can have a vision and hope for the future. They develop relationships and friendships with the other girls that will last a life time. It is something amazing to witness.


2011 is almost ending and this year OLRM has received 6 new girls: Suyapa (December 4, 2004) and her sister Ingrid (January 3, 2007), Bianca, (November 15, 1996), Genesis (September 26, 1997) and the newest girls Martha (3 years old) and her youngest sister Suyapa (1 year old).


DENTAL CARE:
Our Little Roses has their very own dentist - Jensy. From living in the slums to becoming a dentist – what a success story! Jensy is completing an internship and will graduate in December 2011. 
Jensy shares, “Thanks to the support of people like you, we have the opportunity to improve our lives and build a future in which we can become professionals and Christian women serving God, so we can give back, and also help people who need us.” Jensy arrived to Our Little Roses at the age of 9 years old and her dreams to become a dentist were stronger after she was taken to the dentist to fix her teeth and she got braces. Jensy's dreams became a reality thanks to the support of many people of God. "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver " 2 Corinthian 9:7

The Dentistry career is one of the most expensive careers in Honduras. School supplies, tools and medical equipment are very expensive, but the fruits of all the efforts is praiseworthy and now Our Little Roses not only have a dentist, but also a dental clinic equipped to provide dental care, not only to the girls and staff from Our Little Roses, but also to serve the community.


BRACES: Ana Ruth, Leily, Wendoly and Eduviges are four of the girls from Our Little Roses Ministries that are fortunate to receive the braces' treatment to fix their teeth and soon they will enjoy of a brighter smile. The cost of each Braces' treatment is $1,800.00 which include installation of braces and dental visitation. The treatment last two years.


There are 6 more girls than need braces. Any support to the Dental Fund will be highly appreciated.


THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO TRANSFORM A GIRL'S LIFE!! 
For more information about OLRM: www.ourlittleroses.org
e.mail: nprdiana@aol.com or ourlittleroses@yahoo.com

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Ministry empowers Honduran girls for life

By Lynette Wilson, March 01, 2011

[Episcopal News Service – San Pedro Sula, Honduras] 
Ministerios Nuestras Pequeñas Roses began 25 years ago in a three-bedroom rental house in this gritty, factory town four hours from the capital, Tegucigalpa, because its founder, Diana Frade, recognized the need to educate and empower at-risk girls.

"I visited a boys' home in Tegucigalpa, and could see the girls on the street," said Frade, the founder, president and executive director of Ministerios Nuestras Pequeñas Roses, or Our Little Roses (OLR). "I thought, if the church is doing this for boys, why not for girls?"

Adhering to protocol, Frade introduced a resolution aimed at helping girls at a diocesan convention, but it failed -- but she'd already promised judges (the court system manages child placement in Honduras) in Tegucigalpa a home for girls. So with $80,000 – part memorial gift, part matching grant – she rented a house and took in the first girl. By the end of the first year, there were 23 girls, a cook and two tias, or aunts, who at OLR handle the everyday needs, rearing and discipline of the girls living in the home, she said.

There are an estimated 200,000 orphaned children in Honduras, according to government statistics. Honduras, a Central America about the size of Tennessee, has a total population of about 8 million, close to 50 percent under the age of 18.

The first building, in Villa Florencia, was built in 1992 on property donated by the city's mayor on two conditions, Frade said: OLR would be the legal name and listed on the legal documents, and the buildings would be designed in the style of San Pedro Sula. The home came first, and then came the infrastructure –- water, sewer, electricity -- and the neighborhood, she added.

Today, OLR covers 2.5 acres in Colonial Villa Florencia, five minutes from the central city, and includes Holy Family Bilingual School, serving the surrounding community; a residential home, where currently 56 girls, toddlers to teens, live together with their tias; and an off-site transition home for girls who have left the residential home and who are working and/or studying at a university. OLR Ministries also includes a medical clinic, a dental clinic staffed by Dr. Jensey Maldonado, who came to OLR with her sister when she was 9, and a recently completed mountain retreat and conference center, Our Lady of the Roses, in Santa Barbara, about an hour outside the city. ORL also has a Spanish-language school, offering instruction for students and housing on a weekly basis.

It was United Thank Offering, Episcopal Church Women and Daughters of the King who backed OLR from the beginning and it has been women, who recognize that "when you educate women you can change the future," who have continued to support OLR, said Frade, who is married to the Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida. "The women were so excited and got behind it," she said. "This ministry is really quite unique, putting women and girls first; when you put women and girls first, you're changing the generation to come."

OLR operates on a $500,000 annual budget and is registered as a non-governmental organization in Honduras and as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) in the United States for fundraising purposes; it is not a project of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras. The medical and dental clinic, Holy Spirit Bilingual School, the Spanish-language school and the retreat center are set up for self-sufficiency. OLR also has relied on individuals and parishes throughout the Episcopal Church, and also on ecumenical and Roman Catholic support. Over the years individuals and parishes have invested in the girls and their futures by providing sponsorships at $720 a year.

The medical and dental clinics provide fee-based services to the community and Holy Family students pay tuition. The school grew out of a nursery school that was started by volunteers.

"You can't turn your back on the community; your ministry must project and be a part of the community," said Frade, referring to the neighborhood's request for a school. Of the 220, students enrolled in Holy Family, 200 come from the neighborhood and 20 from the girls' home. The other girls attend nearby public schools.

The long-running economic recession in the United States has affected OLR's operating budget, with donations and sponsorships declining. And changes in the country's leadership -- the military forced the former president to leave in 2009 -- have decreased the number of parish and diocesan groups participating in the hospitality ministry.

Family life

There is a pattern to life at the girls' home, which shares the campus with Holy Family School – including all the things you might expect -- shared meals, homework, Saturday tutoring, fútbol practice and games, playtime, crafts, pizza nights, computers, chores done in exchange for television privileges, laundering of school uniforms, and church on Sunday (there also is a chapel on-site). The home is designed in a square, with a courtyard and fountain in the middle.

The older girls help with the younger girls. Each has her own unique tragic, often horrific, story, and each girl receives the help she needs to get on with life.
From the beginning, Frade has demanded that the people working at OLR take the attitude that it doesn't matter where the girls come from, or what their past has been.

"Each has their story, and each is blessed," Frade said. "They know that God loves them and sent them to a home that is providing them with the best of everything for their future. That's how they are able to keep going. "[Whatever happened] that's in the past, it doesn't make any difference any more. Let's move forward."

The first thing to happen when a girl comes to OLR is she is given a bath, her hair is cleaned up, and she gets new clothes.

"We start from the outside and work in," Frade said, adding that the girls also work with psychologists and counselors.

Forty girls from OLR have graduated from high school with many of them going to university. Some have studied law or engineering; many have become social workers, teach in the school or work in the home, and many remain involved in the ministry. Dr. Jensey Maldonado, 25, the dentist, runs the new nearby dental clinic and is in charge of the group home.

When she moved into the home, Maldonado said, it took some time to settle into the rhythm of the home and having to share the tia's attention with other girls, but she adjusted. She spent 15 years there, and she now lives in a transitional home while she completes her 12-month dental internship and gets the clinic off the ground.

"When I came, there were 37 girls and I wanted that personal attention from someone, but things just go on and you adjust," she said. "And the girls have a lot of privileges and opportunities, an education, good medical care, good food, things that a lot of people don't have."

When Maldonado made the decision to study dentistry, she had to prove to Frade that she really wanted it. While she went to school, she worked nights at OLR, helping the little ones with homework, getting them ready for the next day, bathing them and putting them to bed around 9 p.m., and then it was time for her to study, she said.

"Now I can appreciate what I've done; it took a lot," she said during an interview at the dental clinic. "It took me a while to understand what Ms. Diana wanted me to do. Now I understand."
 
Extended family

Hospitality plays an important part in OLR's ministry, where the extended family model is applied, with groups visiting and staying on the OLR campus.

"The more people involved in the girls' lives, the better," Frade said. "It is healing to have people who help to lift them up. It gives them someone to write a Christmas card to … these are children who've lost the nuclear family.

Larry and Jo Hodgin, members of St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Annandale, Virginia, first visited OLR in 2003 at the urging of the church's then-priest associate, the Rev. Lauren Stanley.

"She said, 'You need to go to Honduras,'" Jo Hodgin said, adding that since that first visit, she and her husband visit OLR, on average, twice a year, most recently the week of Feb. 21. They also lead group visits from their parish.
"We made a commitment that we would be like aunts and uncles … extended family," she added. "They are like little magnets -- they keep drawing us back."
Larry Hodgin described his commitment to the girls this way: "I asked myself, as a dad, would I want that happening to my daughters? We keep coming back to let them know that we do care for them," he said.

In addition to regular visits, the Hodgins are on their second sponsorship. And OLR has become part of their family. The Hodgins have two grown daughters, one of whom has visited OLR, and two grandchildren.

"Being involved with OLR has enriched us as a family," Jo Hodgin said, adding that instead of adults in the family exchanging Christmas gifts, they make a donation to OLR.

The OLR campus is surrounded by concrete walls and electric fencing, a common sight in San Pedro Sula, and for the girls, visitors are a welcome distraction.

"The girls enjoy when groups come," Maldonado said. "We are all inside walls … when groups come our routine changes; we get to know and make connections with people.

"Some of them love us like their own kids," she said.
 
-- Lynette Wilson is an editor/reporter of Episcopal News Service. She recently spent a week at Our Little Roses Spanish-language school.

To download a PDF of this article click here.

Friday, January 14, 2011

A Card from her Sponsor

Katherine is excited to receive a card from her sponsor


This is a picture showing Katherine receiving a card from her sponsor.  Like all of us, she loves getting mail, especially from her sponsor!  

Three Wisemen Celebration

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Our Little Roses girls celebrate the visitation of the Three Wise Men who brought gifts to baby Jesus 12 days after his birth. In Honduras this occasion is always separate from the celebration of Christmas.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Christmas Door Decorating Contest Winners!

With the introduction of  American-style ChristmasOur Little Roses Girls love to decorate with thoughtful imagination. We had a door decorating contest this year and here are the winning doors. There are many spaces that get decorated as well as their Christmas tree