On Wednesday, Feb. 24, AMOR hosted Brian Allen, the director of operations for Orphan Helpers, to speak at Longwood University about his experiences on mission trips as well as the company, itself.
AMOR is a Longwood student-run organization that is dedicated to fundraising for orphanages throughout Latin America, according to the Longwood Collegiatelink website.
Orphan Helpers is a Christian non-profit based out of Newport News, Va. With the tagline, “Today’s Orphans, Tomorrow’s Helpers,” the organization builds and maintains orphanages and half-way homes in Honduras and El Salvador. Orphan Helpers has around 20 North American church partnerships and 35 Central American paid staff spread across 13 government orphanages and detention centers.
Allen said that Orphan Helpers “touches” 1,500 to 2,500 children per year with six child protection centers and seven youth detention centers.
“We depend very heavily on paid staff. We’re not a bunch of gringos living down there and working the centers. We bring country people from El Salvador and Honduras to work in the centers,” said Allen, who later noted that he, himself, is bilingual.
In the centers, short-term mission teams travel for seven to 10 days to different centers to assist with Bible school activities.
According to the Orphan Helpers website, vocational training programs are also included, involving cosmetology, sewing, woodworking as well as jewelry and small goods production
Allen showcased the latest video ad campaign from Orphan Helpers, which included pictures of volunteers and assisted children from previous mission trips. As a persuasive tool to bring more attention and interest from the student body to participate in mission trips hosted by Orphan Helpers, the video included various questions like, “Will you help them with us?”
Allen described Honduras as “an economic basket case,” further stating that “one strike [occurs] every two weeks because they [the workers] have not been paid.”
He further described it as “one of the most violent countries in the world.
Through his presentation, Allen stated that around 80 percent of drugs in the United States pass through Honduras.
Allen also described El Salvador as the most desolate country in Central America.
Through the detention centers, Orphan Helpers assists children and young adults affected by drugs and gang life.
“Those are the kids who get very little spiritual formation, but they also have very few opportunities for enrichment opportunities, for education and training,” said Allen.
Allen estimated that there are half a million orphans in Central America. He added that foster care does not exist in Central America.
“Bottom line is they’re just kids, and you find out when you go down there and start dealing with them that they’re a lot like kids here in some ways,” he said.
He later added, “What these kids really crave in any centers is individual attention ... but there’s not enough money, and there’s not enough staff.”
Trevina Joseph, founder of AMOR, said her vision is that “the children in orphanages have necessities, books and really wonderful mentors to live a better life.”
AMOR works with various organizations, including Toms Shoes and The Memory Project as well as Orphan Helpers.
Joseph stated that she hopes for AMOR’s next project to be to make solar-powered flashlights for women in Africa for protection at night from sexual assault.
Joseph said, “If guests could take one thing from the event, it was greater awareness of what is going on in Latin American countries. There is a lot of gang violence and issues that we don’t hear about, and it’s not necessarily always in the news, so always having personal stories [and] people’s experiences down there, I hope they take away more information about what really is going on.”
At the event, thank you cards decorated by spiraled paper designs made by children assisted by Orphan Helpers were given out to audience members. Guests were asked to red red to show support for the organization. Gifts and books were raffled off at the event. To participate in the raffle, guests had to pay $1 per ticket stub. All proceeds from the raffle went to Orphan Helpers. Donations were encouraged.
To gain more information about Orphan Helpers, go online to the Orphan Helpers website at www.orphanhelpers.org. To gain more information about AMOR, the organization holds its meetings every Tuesday in the Lankford Student Union Ballroom at 4 p.m.
