Pictured above: Celia, Melvy, Mónica

News aNd eveNts from our home iN saN igNacio de saraNuestros Pequeños Hermanos Bolivia

April 15th marked the completion of NPH Bolivia’s fourth year providing a home to orphaned and abandoned children. We celebrated the anniversary on Saturday the 18th in the morning as a family,

and in the afternoon with our friends and neighbors. We began with a prayer service with just the NPH family in which a number of children gave accounts of the significance NPH has in their lives. Their stories were ones of gratitude, thankful for having a loving family that they know is always

there for them. Afterward one of our newest family members ran to our House Director in tears of joy, thanking her for the family she now realizes she found, a family she never knew she would have. Afterwards we ate a special lunch all together in the Dining Hall.

In the afternoon, after several weeks of advertising over the local radio station, friends and class- mates joined us from all of the surround- ing communities to share in our celebration. Nearly 300 people joined us as we began with a short presentation in which 14 year old Francisco sang and played a song he wrote on his guitar about NPH and a group of our older children performed a dance. Wilma, now in her year of service, shared a brief history of the organization and thanked everyone for joining us for our celebration. We held Soccer and volleyball tournaments and a dance competition as well as other games for our younger guests. We shared cheese empanadas and cake with everyone under the hot Bolivian sun and the party contin-ued until after the sun went down. We are grateful to have so many friends in our new home and that so many of them could join us in celebration. We look forward to many more years of providing a loving home and family to as many children as we are able.

NPH Bolivia Celebrates Four Years

Leadership of Service Group Passed OnAfter more than two full years since its inception, our service group Mi Voz, Se Escucha (My Voice is Heard) has handed the leadership down to the next generation as Alenia and Rodrigo passed the torch to Daisy and Ever. Both Alenia and Rodrigo have noted major changes in themselves since tak-ing the helm over a year ago. Rodrigo remembers being shy and having great difficulty talking in front of groups. He would sometimes not present in class when it was his turn and was not even sure he wanted to be a leader of the group after his peers elected him. He accepted however deciding that if others were going to have faith in him, he needed to have faith in himself. Alenia also had difficulties taking leadership of the group and remembers it being difficult to orga-nize and direct the group’s energy toward accomplishing tasks. Leading Mi Voz, Se Escucha taught Alenia patience she says, and the ability to organize groups for a common goal. It also has helped her express herself better in front of others. Alenia even enjoys talking in front of groups now, some-thing unimaginable for her before.Thank you to Alenia and Rodrigo for your dedicated service as leader of Mi Voz, Se Eschucha. You have been great models of leadership and in so being, have insured the success of our youth service group into the future.

Wilma Sets Bar for Future PequeñosWilma is the oldest young woman in NPH Bolivia and has been with the home since its beginning in 2005. She is a talented and capable individual who, because of her previous living situation, had fallen behind in school. At the end of the last school year she was 18 years old and still had two more years until she would finish her secondary school work. Furthermore her year of service that she, as all pequeños do, will give to the home upon completing secondary school before continuing her educa-tion would set her back another year in terms of studies and career training. Wilma took the initia-tive and researched other programs and options that would allow her to finish her secondary school quicker and work toward finishing in a more timely fashion. An online program through a center called the Integral Center for Alternative Formation (CIFRA in Spanish) would allow Wilma to com-plete the two years of secondary school she had remaining in 18 months. The fact that the program is online has allowed her to also begin her year of service as a caregiver for our youngest children here in Casa San Jorge. She is the first pequeña to give a year of service at NPH Bolivia with three more following her in the coming year. This arrangement has gained Wilma a whole year and in two years time from February 2009 she will be ready to take the next step in her educa-tion. Wilma excels in math and is very interested in architecture and engineering and would like to pursue one of these in University. For now Wilma is working hard to stay on Schedule with her school work while being an energetic and loving big sister and caregiver to the youngest nine children of our family. She has been a wonderful example to all of her younger brothers and sisters of how to truly thank NPH for all it has provided her by serving her younger brothers and sisters with all the love and affection she has to offer. She has set a high precedent for all of our children who will also do their year of service upon completion of secondary school.

Alenia, Rodrigo, and National Director German Wilma with Andrea Mi Voz, Se Escucha service group

Children Enjoy Vacation Bible CampsThe children of NPH Bolivia enjoyed bible camp sessions tailored to each age group during their win-ter vacations from school. Three separate retreats were planned to relate to three distinct age groups of children. Our oldest boys and girls participated in a two night, three day camp focused on habits and virtues that will make them positive leaders in their society. The younger children went on their own three day retreat that focused on more age-appropriate stories and games that wrapped Jesus’ message into their daily lives. Our youngest children had a full day of games and fun on their own one day retreat.All of our sessions were held at a beautiful piece of property which belongs to our parish and which was lent to us. In between the palm trees and under the cabana roofs our children engaged in thoughtful activities, exercises and games which taught meaningful lessons while having fun. The camps were an important way to keep our children’s minds active during vacation and also provided opportunities to leave the home for a few days and explore. We are very thankful to our parish, San Jose, for the use of their facility, and to all those that make these types of excursions possible for our children.

Godparent and Friend of NPH Bolivia Offers Services as Dentist

There are many obstacles that make it difficult for our children to maintain healthy mouths. Many of our children arrive malnourished which has disastrous effects on such young mouths, especially when poor dental care is the norm. Our access to dentists is limited by the nearest affordable clinic only tak-ing a fixed number of patients per day which is a difficult limitation for a family of 69. This means that those that are lucky enough to visit the dentist often don’t make it until they have an urgent need. In this way, the children basically have to wait until they too have an urgent need before they are seen. We welcomed a special visitor into our home this past week in Bolivia. Christopher VanDerhoef is the brother of one of our volunteers, a godparent of one of our children here, and a dentist. He was gener-ous enough to combine his vacation with some work in his field, work our children badly needed. With what we hope is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, a fully functional dental clinic, which is part of a free clinic not far from the home, was lent to us for a few days. Christopher arrived with a number of supplies and purchased the rest in nearby Santa Cruz and he got to work. In two and a half days of work he saw 24 children filling close to 80 cavities and pulling a couple of teeth. The majority of these issues, had they not been attended to now, would have become larger and more painful problems, ef-fecting more of their mouths. We are very grateful for Dr. VanDerhoef’s visit. The children really enjoyed getting to know him, especially his godson José Andrés, during his weeklong visit which included our celebration of our Quinceañeras. They are also relieved and thankful to have pains in their mouths, which they have been living with for some time, alleviated. Thank you Dr. VanDerhoef for coming and sharing a week with us, leaving behind happy and healthy smiles!

Daisy and Verónica presenting on retreat Dr. VanDerhoef working on Ever Performing at the retreat’s talent night

Friends NWEncarnación Aguado LopezGlodhine DhanasamyTimothy PremselaarMichele HasslerKaaren KimDawni Rae ShawSusie LaBarreHolly ShephardPatricia WertheimerAmruta GadreStacy FerneySheri PorterJohn BlasenChristopher VanDerhoefPhilip VanDerhoefKathleen McKayRodney & Donna HodelDoug Geraci

Friends SWCheryl PagelJackson LanderGabriel Campos

Friends UMWJoyce BorealinoMac McWaltersJennifer Doyle

WO-NetherlandsAndries BonneurBjorn ClaessensEllen BekkemaMarieke van AstenGer SpetgensWim de Frel familyvan de Heide familyMartin van den BroekMarc Lahaije & family

NPH-ItalyNancy CaiafaMassimo RaponiAngela AnticoIsolina PessinaMaria Ada TarantinoAlessandra BorghiConcetta Di GuidaDaniele BoriniValentina ManginiLudovica MoreschiniDaria LorenzettiMariantonia DepaloNerina Capelli

UKBS-AustriaOtto JordaAnna LangBettina Oesterle-IsbertSilvia AraguasChrista Steinhauer

UKBS-SwitzerlandMartin Schwarz

UKBS-GermanyAnke NeskampJohannes & Brigitte MeyerGerhard HaunerKarin WohlgemuthJanina WohlgemuthSigrid Plottek- LohmannKarin BarberAngelika FussManfred Hamacher

NPFS-FranceGeneviéve CognyChristine TeranAnne-Marie StockerClaudette LespineMarcel Corn

¡Gracias! New Godparents

Phase Two Construction Underway Ground is broken and our second phase of construction is underway in Bolivia! We have completed the supply warehouse which will house all building materials for this and future construction projects. Foundations for two new homes have been laid and the walls are beginning to rise out of them. Each home, once completed, will house 16 children and two caregivers and are slated to be finished in early 2010. The two new homes are being built in the same style as our current six homes which have served us very well. The smaller bed-rooms of only four children have been conducive to generating a family environment in the houses. We would like to thank all of our generous friends who have made this project possible. We look forward to welcoming 32 new children into our home shortly after the houses are completed!

Before breaking ground Laying the foundationVanesa, Elizabeth, Marco, Cecilia, and

Mónica

Contact us* mail: Casilla Postal 1217 - Santa Cruz de la Sierra - Bolivia * website: www.nph.org * email: info.bo@nph.org *

* newsletter: hc.bo@nph.org *