About the foundation
From Fundacion Salvacion
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What is "Fundación Salvación"?
"Fundación Salvación" is a christian charitable organization. It houses women from the ago of babies to ladies with their children and boys from babies to the age of 15. Currently their are two houses: the "Casa Hogar" for children, and ladies and the "Hogar Juvenil" for young boys that grew up in the Casa Hogar and change to this place at the age of 11. Both houses are on the grounds of the foundation in which all live together. In the evening each group goes to their respective area to sleep.
History
The foundation was established on the 4th of October 1997 with 18 teenagers who had problems with drugs. In this period it was a center for rehabilitation in which worked doctors from the hospitals of Getsemani (specialized in psychology and surgery). In 1998 the foundation received the territory in which it currently resides by the authorities of Huehuetenango under the condition to accept orphans. Thus with much love and due to a promise to God the foundation was changed to an orphanage. It started with the three children of an alcohol dependent resident but currently it houses between 100 and 110 persons.
What type of problems we attend
Negligence of the children on behalf of the parents, due to different reasons like drug or alcohol addictions, emigration to the United States without the possibility to take the children with them, or extreme poverty.
Abuse by parents or other persons (the majority of the children).
Children that are sent to the street to work by parents or other persons.
Sexual abuse by parents or other persons.
Unmarried mothers that do not find work that permits them to stay with their children. We take care of the children and the mothers come to visit them once or twice a month.
Children whose parents cannot pay for their education. The children live in the foundation and we give them the support to study.
Age of the children
We have the following groups:
- Babies: between 0 and 2 years
- Small children: between 2 and 5 years (two groups: one for children between 2 and 4 years, the other from four to five vears).
- Children in school age: from 6 to 10 years.
- Pre-adolescents: from 11 to 15 years
- Adolescents: from 15 to 18 years
- Adult women: from 18 years
Attention that we give them
When the children arrive at the foundation most of them are dirty, have lice, problems with skin and teeth. This is taken care of and they get the articles of personal hygiene. They receive a bed, clean clothes, shoes and aricles of personal hygiene. All of them receive spiritual, psycological, medial and legal aid.
Programs that the foundation offers
The foundation offers the following programs:
Spiritual
They receive spiritual help, teaching them that God and the Bible are our only guides in life and that these give them the strength to solve their problems. We have visits by the "Instituto Bíblico Centroamericano" which gives classes to the different groups. We also receive visits by different churches and we go to visit them.
Education
Currently 76 children attend attend schools or programs of professional training. It is very difficult to maintain this because the education in Guatemala is very expensive. With the help of God and due to contributions of donors we can keep up this work.
Presently the First Church of Conroe in Texas helps us through the Buckner Foundation to pay the monthly college fees.
Sports
Children and teenagers daily practice sports like football and basket ball. As they like this very much they formed groups that participate in encounters with other groups outside of the foundation. As we have some excellent players they were selected to represent their schools in sportive events.
Early stimulation
The smallest children receive classes in painting, writing, handicraft work, singing, dancing etc. The objective is to stimulate their development as many of the come to the foundation with a delay of their psicomotoric development.
Occupational therapy
We have an educator in the house that gives classes of cooking, sewing and handicrafts to the ladies and young men. On Monday a volunteer gives classes of bakery to the young men. They also receive classes of carpentry.
Volunteering
We always welcome volunteers from Guatemala or abroad. They chose tasks according their capacities. They can live with us without any cost or stay with a family from Huehuetenango. It does not matter if they do not speak Spanish perfectly as the children can be good and patient teachers.
We also have the support of Spanish teachers with many years of experience and contact to a Spanish school.
