thebajarunner
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Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
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Orphanage article
This is the article written by the reporter that asked for help several months ago....
As I recall, she was greeted with some pessimism from certain quarters hereabouts.
Very good article, wish she had quote one of my better quotes rather than the one she wrote,
oh well, still a great article.
Hilda is one of "my kids"
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Delivering hope
Corazon de Vida, an Irvine-based charity supporting the struggling orphanages of Baja California, is making a difference for forgotten children.
By Marla Jo Fisher
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A dozen small children clad in clean jeans and T-shirts press their faces against the chain-link fence, peering intently down at the busy highway
below.
They see a bus turn uphill on the rutted dirt road toward them and all hell breaks loose.
"They're here! They're here!" the children scream, and begin running to the gate.
Inside the bus, the regulars begin gathering up their belongings, while trip director George Perez picks up the microphone and tells the newbies what
to expect.
It's 9:30 on Saturday morning, and the volunteer bus from Corazon de Vida, an Irvine-based charity, is making its monthly visit to El Faro orphanage
in Tijuana.
El Faro, which means "The Lighthouse," is one of the 14 orphanages in Baja California that Corazon de Vida supports, with donations that pay for food
and utilities for 700 children. With no government funding, children's homes here survive strictly on private donations.
After climbing uphill for a half-mile, the bus can't make it back down the final steep dirt road to the orphanage, which clings precariously to a
cliff overlooking the busy highway to Tecate. Instead, the 55 people aboard get out and walk the last quarter-mile, through a dusty, trash-strewn
shantytown of shelters made from plywood and tin.
"Be careful when you get off the bus," Perez warns. "The road here is steep and you can lose your footing."
Roosters crow and scrawny dogs bark, as the volunteers kick up dust on the rutted track, hauling bags of diapers, laundry soap, mops and brooms down
the hill.
This home, built on a landfill made from old tires, will someday slide down the hill and be pulverized on the highway below. Every storm, a few tires
are displaced.
Perez and his colleagues at Corazon de Vida hope to someday raise the money to move the facility to more stable ground, preferably before an
earthquake or mudslide moves it for them.
But on this day, the 70 children joyfully pounce on the visitors as soon as they walk in the door. Some search out their favorite people. Others leap
into the arms of strangers.
People have brought balloons, games, books and face-painting supplies. Visitors aren't allowed to bring toys, because of the home's extreme need for
other, more basic staples of life, nor candy, which will lead to dental visits.
Mostly, the children just crave contact with adults other than caregivers worn out from cooking, cleaning and supervising.
"These kids are so loving towards us, it's like they give more to us than we can give to them," said Concordia University student Stephanie Warren as
she sat on the dirt floor holding a sleeping child.
Volunteers aren't allowed to be alone with the children, but they are encouraged to hold them, touch them, give them piggyback rides.
"Please do not take any kids home with you," Perez jokes with the visitors. "I know you want to.
CHILDREN LIVING ALONE ON THE STREETS
No one is quite sure exactly how many private orphanages are operating in Baja California. Though these establishments are called orphanages, most of
the children's parents are alive. Some kids have been abandoned. In other cases, parents are simply too poor and desperate to keep them.
The Mexican government estimates some 6,000 children are living on the streets in the Tijuana area, though other researchers have put that count as
high as 20,000.
Sometimes, kindhearted people take in one or two street children, then a group of siblings. Before they know it, they're running an orphanage.
Children have been rescued foraging for food in the city dump. One woman took in three little girls she found living under a car after their mother
died. Some migrants making their way to the U.S. leave their children behind at orphanages, planning to return someday to collect them. Other kids
have parents who are prostitutes or drug addicts.
While the Mexican government will pick up street children, it must look for places to put them in private homes, since there is no government system
of foster care. Adoption is difficult and discouraged.
"An orphanage is actually like Camelot – it's ideal," Perez said. "It's the ultimate location."
The Mexican family welfare agency, DIF, inspects private orphanages but does not provide any financial support. There are not nearly enough beds for
all the children on the streets.
"The government won't admit how bad it is, I don't think you can get a straight answer," Dick Hagerty, who was appointed in the 1980s by then-Lt. Gov.
Mike Curb to the now-defunct Commission of the Californias, which looked at issues affecting California, Baja California and the southern state of
Baja, Baja California Sur.
At El Faro's ranch in the country, where teenagers live to keep them away from urban temptations, Perez found two boys from Orange County who had been
brought across the border and then abandoned by their mother. "When I met them, I asked them, "Why do you speak such good English?" And they said,
"Because we're Americans."
He arranged for the boys to be returned to Orange County, where they are living at Orangewood Children's Home.
He also found a teenage girl, raised in Illinois but born in Mexico, whose mother brought her to Tijuana and abandoned her there. Wandering the
streets, hungry and alone, the girl stumbled onto El Faro and asked for help.
Because she's not a legal resident of the U.S., the girl can't return, but Perez volunteered to find her family and let them know where she was. Now,
an aunt is seeking to adopt her and bring her back to Illinois.
HER MOTHER NEVER CAME BACK
In one small, tidy dormitory at El Faro, the girls sleep on seven sets of pink bunk beds with worn sheets.
The lucky ones have pillows, under which they hide their meager cache of personal possessions – the only private space they own.
Some visitors have brought small plastic pencil boxes, which the children can use to store their cherished items.
Perez stops to talk to one child, who tugs at his arm.
"Her mother dropped her off two years ago and never came back," Perez says. "She keeps telling me her mother is coming back for her." He shakes his
head sadly.
Six-year-old Lupita also demands his attention. She wants to go to school like her friends, but she can't because she has no papers. Her father
dropped her off without a birth certificate, which is required to enroll in Mexican schools.
El Faro sends its kids to school an hour away by bus, because the home gets a discount on fees. Although primary education is compulsory in Mexico
through sixth grade, it costs about $80 a month to send a child to school including uniforms and supplies.
Children only go to high school if they have a sponsor willing to pay their fees.
The founder of Corazon de Vida, Hilda Pacheco-Taylor, knows all about the struggles that Baja orphanages face. Today, she's a successful Irvine
executive. But 35 years ago, she was one of those children.
"I was 8 years old when our mother placed us in the Puerto de Fe orphanage," Pacheco-Taylor recalled. "She didn't want to, but she thought we would be
safer there."
Her father, a barber, abandoned the family, leaving Pacheco-Taylor's mother struggling to support four children by making tortillas. At 8,
Pacheco-Taylor cared for her younger siblings while her mother went to work. But when her brother almost drowned, her mother thought they would be
better off in a children's home.
Later, her mother made her way to the United States and got work as a laundress.
Pacheco-Taylor lived in the children's home until age 16, when she left the home and made her own way to join her mother in Orange County. The family
later gained legal residence through an amnesty program.
Today, Pacheco-Taylor is vice president of operations for L5 Performance Systems in Irvine and married with grown children.
But she has never forgotten Puerto de Fe. On one visit, she discovered the home had shrunk in size and the children were ill-fed and tattered. That
spurred her to action.
Initially, she intended to just find some financial sponsors. But she ultimately formed a nonprofit corporation that today helps not only her
childhood home, but 13 others.
These days, people like George Perez have joined the cause.
A former computer consultant, Perez was dragged on a visit by a girlfriend years ago. Touched by the children, he began volunteering and ultimately
sold his house in Los Angeles and moved to Dana Point to be closer to Baja.
Now, he works for the nonprofit, supervising the orphanage contacts, organizing cooperatives to get a better price on gas, utilities, milk and fresh
produce.
On the visit to El Faro, it was Perez's birthday and the orphanage gave him a cake, along with the residents who also had birthdays that month.
While on the bus driving down there, Perez got a call on his cell phone. It was children from another orphanage, singing him "Happy Birthday" en
masse.
"I couldn't imagine a better way to spend my birthday," Perez said, beaming.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7994 or mfisher@ocregister.com
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s - Mar. 30, 2007 01:32 PM Remove Comment
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Great job. It good to see people still care about those less fortunate, especially children.
JohnnyG WeekendToys com - Mar. 25, 2007 09:33 PM Remove Comment
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I agree with all of your comments and commend them. but like I said, we have deserving children here that could use a helping hand. What is so wrong
with helping someone needy from our own country? Is it not policially correct enough?
redhead - Mar. 25, 2007 09:29 PM Remove Comment
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Kudos to the columnist who wrote this story. It was very touching and opened my eyes to the needs that surround us. Thank you, thank you to those who
produced this story and to the saints who run the organization. Hopefully the media attention will increase the service offered to these beautiful
children in Mexico. I hope I can do my part to touch a child's life like the wonderful volunteers of Corazon de Vida.
Erin - Mar. 25, 2007 09:27 PM Remove Comment
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I am so honored to see these people giving their helping hands to these kids. I invite all the profesionals to offer their help somehow . I know they
need it. I have been there and I know the money been recieved get used there.
kian - Mar. 25, 2007 09:27 PM Remove Comment
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Mexico is a very poor country through no fault of its everyday citizens and certainly through no fault of these children. It is therefore unable to
help most children and most aid for children comes from outside the country. There are many fine Mexican families who take in children from the street
sometimes up to 50 or more but the need goes beyond even this generosity. Many children come to orphanages because they have lost their parents
through death or illness. Many children may have parents somewhere but no way to reunit them. Some children come to orphanages because they have been
abused or exploited by people who may or may not be their parents. Without the social structures in this poor country there is really no system to
find out. Children in the orphanages of Mexico are more fortunate than the thousands who live on the street but not as fortunate as the orphanages in
the US. In the US we work to improve faciliaties and to purchase a horse and build a shop for the children to use. In Mexico we find that children
must eat get healthcare and have water that is fit to drink and heating for water to take baths. The needs in Mexico only a few hours away are basic
and fundamental to life itself. In the US we have been fortunate and can provide for these basic needs in most cases. Those who wish to help children
have to decide if our geographical borders mean anything. If they do then donate close to home. If they don't then go where the greatest need presents
itself. Day to day we help our family. When needed we help a neighbor. When it comes to helping kids Mexico is our neighbor and the children didn't
get to choose their circumstances. CDV has a generous board of American supporters who pay for the overhead of running their foundation so that 100
percent of child sponsorships go directly to children.
Michael Beason - Mar. 25, 2007 09:06 PM Remove Comment
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this is reality. we can all make a diffrence in a childs life if we donate. but i ask my self why is the media so interested in other unimportant
things that are happening in this world today for example ANA NICHOLE'S CORPSE STRUGGLE, i mean come on she has passed let her be. i know its off
topic but my point being that media needs to report in things like this.
sane person - Mar. 25, 2007 08:50 PM Remove Comment
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I work for Corazon de Vida so my comment may appear to be bias. I am often asked why Mexico does not do anything and why not help children here? We
may not agree with the cultural and governmental differences of Mexico but we can offer help and hope. Children are the future leaders of our planet.
Technology and innovation allow each of us to connect globally in ways we only dreamed about. Do borders really matter? As far as helping children
here, for me it was not a choice, children are children no matter where they happen to live or what circumstances they were born in to. They all
deserve to have someone who cares. That is the beauty of giving back, we can chose the causes we are most passionate about and each of us can make a
difference.
Kelly Morrissey - Mar. 25, 2007 08:50 PM Remove Comment
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Children in need are children in need. When we find them, we must help. I am deeply grateful to these people who see no borders to love and service.
Kirsten Rose - Mar. 25, 2007 06:56 PM Remove Comment
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For those that wrote the comments below. What a WONDERFUL JOB these people have done. Even though it's crossing the border it doesn't matter where the
volunteer work is rendered. What matters is that these people have taken time out of their busy lives to spend 1 day with little ones who have nobody.
laura - Mar. 25, 2007 06:41 PM Remove Comment
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It's very commendable to offer a helping hand to those in need,however, what about the children in our own country?
redhead - Mar. 25, 2007 06:09 PM Remove Comment
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Why is Mexico not helping its own citizens.
Brenda - Mar. 25, 2007 05:21 PM Remove Comment
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A lot of bad bad parents
tim and henrys - Mar. 25, 2007 06:59 AM
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marla
Nomad
Posts: 287
Registered: 10-29-2003
Location: Long Beach
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Hi I wrote that story. Sorry Bajarunner, your better quotes got cut because the story was too long! I did help kids here, I adopted two older children
from the L.A. county foster system. Maybe the complainers on this board could do the same, then there wouldn't be any kids without parents.
If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a
speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. Henry David
Thoreau
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thebajarunner
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3718
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy amable
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Thanks Marla
Hilda and the folks at "Corazon" were really pleased with the article.... in fact they sent it to me up here in Central Cal.
And no, I am not sorry that you cut my quotes, the story was excellent and you captured well the moods of the really good places that do exist in
Northern Baja.
I do take serious issue with the quote from Perez that says, "The orphanages are Camelot"
They are decidedly not Camelot, they are still institutions, they are just a far better place than the alternative.
And, as you know, I too took home kids, four in fact that I raised with my own family and who have all succeeded and all call me "Dad."
Of that I am most proud.
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
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Mood: Just dancing through life
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Marla/Runner
Helping kids is just a thing that all of the real folks do in Baja.
I just got a letter from the La Salina Community Group asking for donations to send a deserving kid to college.....for a lot of them that is the only
way they will get there.............
So! if you care send a buck or two to me and I will see that they receive the money to allow a most smart kid to move forward in
life.................................We already did that once but what the hell.............a mind wasted is a mind full of Corona.
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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