When he was ten months old, he was welcomed into a home and began receiving family-style care. Thankfully, Ricardo’s life was changed through The Hope Effect’s work in Chihuahua.
He didn’t know how to express pain or joy, because nobody reacted to his emotions. He began forgetting when and how to cry because crying got him nowhere-there was simply no parent available to comfort him. For the next several months, Ricardo was cared for in an orphanage.Īs a newborn in an institution, Ricardo’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development were severely delayed by the lack of connection with a family. Without a family-without even a name-he was assigned to the child protective services in Chihuahua. Ricardo was abandoned at a hospital by his 16-year-old mother immediately after he was born. And children like Ricardo*, a young boy in Chihuahua, Mexico, are able to heal and learn what it means to be part of a family. Under this type of loving care, children flourish and thrive. This allows children to receive more individual attention while growing up in a stable, family environment. Our model of care mimics the family structure, with two parents and no more than 6-8 children in a household. After four years of existence, because of your support, we are currently working in several locations in both Mexico and Honduras. That’s why The Hope Effect is working to pioneer and expand family-based orphan care around the world. Yet there are very few nonprofit organizations trying to solve the problem. The research on this has been known for decades. As a result, development is stunted and learning abilities are delayed or lost. When children are raised in institutions, they don’t receive enough personal interaction within a loving environment. In developing nations, orphans are often raised in institutional care, which can have damaging effects on children. The Hope Effect’s mission is to change the way the world cares for orphans. This month marks the four-year anniversary of The Hope Effect-the nonprofit organization I launched in November 2015 with incredible support from the Becoming Minimalist community. This Giving Tuesday, you can provide the love of a family for orphaned children around the world! The Today, people across the globe are celebrating and practicing generosity, and we have the opportunity to give something priceless. Thankfully, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes Giving Tuesday. I always find it ironic that we give thanks for what we have on Thanksgiving, and then immediately turn around and purchase more items we most likely don’t need. The days following Thanksgiving, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are some of the busiest shopping days of the year. Over the last few days, there has been a big focus on buying-spending money trying to get (allegedly) the best deals.