ORPHAN HELPERS INC

Orphan Helpers seeks to serve the physical, spiritual, emotional, and educational needs of abandoned and incarcerated youth by effectively partnering with individuals, churches, businesses, governments, and other organizations. We aim to: 1) reduce the youth recidivism rate by working with youth to prevent them from re-offending; 2) secure employment and education opportunities for youth through partnerships with the business community; 3) recruit churches to provide Christian community to youth once they are released from the detention and protections centers.

The Orphan Helpers plan of intervention is centered on the following 4S Strategy:

SEEK. Orphan Helpers sends workers into government-run orphanages and juvenile detention centers each day to connect with youth who have been forgotten or who have lost their way. We shower them with love when others have not. We share with them a hope and a future. This step involves: Connecting daily with youth living in government institutions; Sharing with them the hope of a better future; Identifying at-risk youth who desire to change their lives; Improving youths' physical surroundings in government-run centers.

SERVE. For those children and youth who respond to the offer, Orphan Helpers serves them on a deeper level. We walk alongside them in the centers to give them educational training, emotional healing, and spiritual hope. This step involves: Establishing Success Academies within the government-run centers to delivering structured, specialized youth leadership training; Moving youth into a right relationship with God, themselves, others, and their community; Providing basic education tutoring, job skills training, and service opportunities; Recruiting volunteers from churches to serve as teachers and mentors; Guiding youth in developing a life plan to assist them in identifying and pursuing their purpose.

SURROUND. While seeking and serving the children are huge steps, the work of Orphan Helpers does not end there. Orphan Helpers understands youth face significant obstacles and challenges once they leave the centers. Once youth have completed the Orphan Helpers program within the centers, Orphan Helpers continues working with those youth receptive to change. Orphan Helpers assists the youth in fulfilling their action plan through mentorship, guidance, and even temporary financial assistance. This step involves: Working with committed youth as they leave the centers; Assigning a Success Coach to assist youth with transition back into society; Mapping community resources and opportunities that will help youth pursue their plans; Connecting youth with local churches and volunteer mentors who will meet regularly with youth; Assisting at-risk youth with temporary financial aid to help them with their new start.

SUCCEED. Our prayer is that all youth who have dedicated themselves to pursuing God's plan for their lives will succeed. We want to see them at school, on a job, off drugs, in a church, out of trouble, with a family. That is why we monitor results to mark the progress of youth and to make sure we are as effective as possible. This step involves: Monitoring results by tracking each youth's progress; Demonstrating the program's effectiveness through statistics on recidivism, job retention, and church involvement; Keeping youth connected through Orphan Helpers Alumni Network.

With 22 years of experience in Central America, Orphan Helpers has sustained interventions in the lives of youth across Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. We have helped hundreds of young people find hope and purpose where previously there was only hopelessness and despair. Along the way, we have earned the respect of the government social services department with whom we have partnered, with the judges who place the children in government care that we serve, and the respect of the youth themselves.

In fact, the Honduras Supreme Court issued a report in September 2014 applauding Orphan Helpers' impact on the lives of youth, in spite of the deplorable living conditions in the nation's four juvenile justice centers:

“It will be required that minors receive some form of education, whether formal or informal. Orphan Helpers is declared a subject matter expert in the fields of reinsertion and rehabilitation, both educational and spiritual, and can stay in the juvenile detention centers as they deem convenient, regardless of the administration that is ruling the center."

In 2022, Orphan Helpers celebrated the 1,000th youth to complete the Success Academy program. As youth graduate and are released back to the community, we work to find employment and education opportunities for them. More than 400 youth across El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are receiving follow-up services.