A Great Thing!

Written by my sister Anna- Also to the left of this post is a link for One Heart-
A year and a half ago I sent out an email to friends and family I
thought would be interested in forming what we call "One Heart Action
Group" to raise money for microcredit. Many responded and over the
course of the last year and a half we have been able to establish 2
microcredit banks and help contribute to a self perpetuating
scholarship fund in El Salvador. The money has been raised through
donations of the action group members and fund raisers. You can read
a bit about what we have done at http://ofoneheart.blogspot.com
As some of you know, last night Rob and I along with some family and
friends were able to hear a presentation about a unique orphanage
located in Guatemala. It was given by Guillermo, who is a 24 year
old, returned missionary, college student who is going to graduate
from a university in Guatemala with a degree in architecture. Last
year he was working in an orphanage and became very upset by the
corruption and abuse of the children. As some of you may know
adoption is very corrupt in Guatemala. Owners of orphanages basically
sell children and so many people that run the orphanages are out to
make a profit, not help the children who are often victims of neglect
and abuse. The government, due to bribery, often turns a blind eye to
the abuses. Anyway, Guillermo became concerned with what he was
seeing and began the legal process to start an orphanage and get some
of the children removed from the orphanage he worked for. Through a
series of incredible circumstances, or what some call miracles, he was
able to do this, find a home, and begin to provide a loving atmosphere
for twelve children.
As a member of the LDS church Guillermo believes that The Family: A
Proclamation to the World provides a good framework for helping these
children. He holds family home evenings, takes the children to
church, holds family prayer and tries to promote their spiritual
growth. He also knows that education is key to helping these children
have a better future. Currently there is a teacher that homeschools
the children, but he would like to be able to send them to school.
There isn't public education in Guatemala and he is trying to raise
funds to be able to send them to school. One of his goals, which is
not common in Guatemalan orphanages (where the children are sold for a
profit) is to work to unite the children with their families and to
teach families how to care for their children. Many of these children
were born to extremely poor families and there is no documentation of
their births. This makes tracking their families down akin to
searching for dead ancestors in family history work. Basically,
through extensive searching, he tries to find their families and teach
them about the gospel and about the family and tries to get them to
understand the values taught by the proclamation. He tries to teach
families that they are the basic unit of society, and the home is
where children should be educated, and that there is no other
organization nor means that can replace parents in the education and
nurturing of their children. Since the home was started about six
months ago he has been able to reunite a young boy named Marcos with
his family. It is his hope that by successfully replacing these
children with their families his orphanage will become a model for
other orphanages and help to force change in the adoption system that
is so corrupt.
The work he is doing is amazing and on every level he has been guided
and helped. He has experienced many small miracles that have made
what seemed like an impossible endeavor possible. The work he is doing
is very life changing for these children who are actually learning
that they are children of God and being provided with love and hope.
Listed below is the budget to run the home for a year:
Salaries (includes a cook, teacher, director, and legal
representative).....US $ 14,600
Food..... US $6,400
Schooling for 1 child........ US $1, 356
Housing (including utilities)..... US $10,720

My purpose in sending this email to basically let everyone I know is
that I believe that what he is doing is very important and to solicit
more support for what he is doing. He is providing a safe refuge for
some children who desperately need it, he is giving them an education
and the gospel both things that will help them to become good members
of society and good parents, and he is poised to be a model of reform
and change in the corrupt Guatemalan adoption system (where recently
there has been some intense International scrutiny that the bribe
taking government officials may not be able to ignore much longer).
What he is doing is extremely worthwhile.
So if this is something you think you may be interested in you can
send donations in the form of a check written out to Help
International with Clara Fantasia written on the memo line (if you
want to learn more about Help International visit
www.help-international.org). Help International will wire our money
directly to Guillermo and he wants all his accounting to be
transparent and open so that people will know that their money is
going directly to running the home. You can send your checks to me at
2158 West Hugoton Circle, Taylorsville Utah 84118 or directly to Help
International whose address you can get from their website. (A note
to anyone involved in our One Heart Action group...we are still
raising money for microcredit as well so please be sure to remember if
you want your donations to go towards our next bank put one heart in
the memo line and if you would like to contribute to Clara Fantasia to
put that on the memo line).
There will also be opportunities to send clothing, school supplies,
books, and other items, which I will let people know about if you are
interested. If anyone would like to provide Christmas for any of the
children let me know.
If you are interested in helping I would encourage you to let other
people know about what Guillermo is trying to accomplish so that
support for his effort will multiply.
If you are interested in donating money, but aren't in a position to
donate perhaps you could hold a fundraiser with your friends, school,
neighborhood, ward members, extended family, etc.
Thanks to those of you that actually made it all the way through this
long email!

--Anna Hastings
"When we feel love for God's children, we are given opportunities to
help them in their journey back to His presence." Don R. Clarke