A Success Story
What does life hold for the kids who
leave the orphanage? Even if they stay in the orphanage until they graduate from high school, an independent life without family support in
Ecuador’s economy can be very rough. That is why Vanessa’s success is so encouraging.
Three and a half years ago Vanessa,
who had always been rather independent, was having trouble dealing with the strict rules of the orphanage where she lived in Cuenca. After some
misleading encouragement from young men, Vanessa then age 15, decided to have a try at life on her own. Almost immediately reality slapped her in the
face and she found herself homeless, money less and very frightened and alone.
OSSO tried to keep track of her and how she was doing, but
we can’t make life too easy for the children who leave. After all, if the children knew that all they had to do was get kicked out of the
orphanage and OSSO would give them an apartment and food there would be a mad rush to get kicked out.
Yet every time I would go to
Cuenca I would try to track Vanessa down and see how she was. I would take her out to eat and offer her a scholarship to go back to school and try to
make sure that at least the basic needs were taken care of.
For a couple years, those were discouraging meetings. No words were needed to tell me what
was written on her thin face and downcast eyes. Life on her own was very difficult and she learned many hard lessons.
But recently that
has all changed. Last spring she got married to a young man who has been very supportive, and she graduated from high school. The last time I was in
Cuenca she told me that she was attending University to become a social worker, then she proudly announced that they were paying for it on their own
and did not need help from OSSO. Then she did something that none of the kids who have left the orphanages have ever done before. She invited me to
her house for dinner. I was pleased to find their home comfortable and well furnished.
To top it all off, in November her university
selected her to be one of two students to represent the university at an international conference of university students in Quito. While Vanessa and
her husband, Washington, are still struggling students, they seem to be doing alright, and the results speak clearly from the satisfaction and
happiness on Vanessa’s face.
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OSSO keeps track of a couple dozen girls that have left the orphanages. We try to find them
jobs, safe places to live and provide scholarships and encouragement. Those who stay in the orphanages until they graduate from high school and have
a good job tend to do okay, but life is still a struggle.
For many who leave the orphanages early or get kicked out there is a very
familiar pattern. They find a man who promises to give them the love and security they have always yearned for. With that promise they leave the
orphanage and school certain of having found their “happily ever after.” Often within just months, they find themselves alone, victims
of domestic violence or pregnant or all three.
As Sister Fabiola once told me, “some of them won’t learn until they go out
on their own and get to know hunger loneliness and real pain. Unfortunately, for some of them that is what it takes, and then they are ready to
rededicate themselves to study and learn and rebuild their lives.”
OSSO is in the planning stage of creating a halfway house for
the girls leaving the orphanages who need help creating or rebuilding their lives.
If you would be interested in helping support individual girls who are struggling for
independence or to help with our halfway house, e-mail me at headrex@aol.com or call our office.
Rex Head, M.D.
Executive Director
