Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos

NPH International

Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH), literally meaning Our little brothers and sisters, is an organization that has provided a home for thousands of orphans and abandoned children since 1954. Currently there are NPH homes in 9 countries throughout Latin America.

Mission & Philosophy

The official mission of NPH is "to provide shelter, food, clothing, healthcare and education in a Christian family environment based on unconditional acceptance and love, sharing, working and responsibility."

Self-sufficiency is a cornerstone of the NPH philosophy, and many NPH homes grow much of their own food. Each home has their own chapel, clinic, primary and secondary school.

Reciprocity is also a foundational ideal of NPH, and every pequeno must give a year of service at their home after graduating highschool and before going to college. Many NPH children work later in their lives for the organization as lawyers, teachers, doctors, and home and national directors.

While not related by blood ties, every child in the NPH organization is treated as a member of a single family. Raised and provided for as such, none of the children are available for adoption.

The result of this active philosophy and mission is to engender in the children raised in the homes a spirit of trust, confidence, and sharing toward others; attitudes which are rare in persons with histories of abuse or being abandoned.

As Erich Fromm, the renowned psychologist, has pointed out in a study that he conducted with Michael Maccoby of the NPH organization;

"The boys and girls come from the poorest classes, from families in which the mother has died, and, in about 80 percent of the cases, in which the father has abandoned the children. Considering these conditions, one would expect a great many behavioral difficulties- either destructiveness or sexual problems... But contrary to such expectations, no major behavior problems exist among these children. There are practically no problems of violence in the sense of serious physical assault against either another member of the community, teachers, outsiders, nor are there any serious sexual problems...What is remarkable, however, is the absence of not only major behavioral problems but the presence of a spirit of cooperation and mutual responsibility. The boys and girls feel themselves to be members of the “family” and are proud of this membership, although this family is not based on the common tie of blood and is so large that it exceeds the limits of what could even be called an extended family. It is actually a community with life centered values, characterized by a spirit of cooperation and responsibility." [1]

The Homes

History

The first home was established in Mexico by an American priest, Father William Wasson, after a fifteen-year-old boy was arrested for stealing from the poor box of a small church in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Father Wasson didn’t press any charges, instead asking for the boy’s custody. By the end of the year he had 32 children living at a small rented house. which became known as Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos.

Funding and food for the home was solicited by the efforts of Wasson, who travelled extensively until his death in 2006 visiting the wealthy in order to procure funds for his ever growing family.

A hurricane in Honduras prompted Wasson to aid in the relief efforts by founding a second children's home in that country. Wasson then targeted Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, building a home higher up in the mountains, away from the abject poverty of the city streets. Houses were then built in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.

To date over 16,000 children have been cared for in homes located in the countries of Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. In Haiti, the poorest country, thanks to father Richard Frechette, NPH also built the largest pediatric hospital of the Caribbean area, "St Damien", and developed a major program to help disabled people, which represent over 40,000 per year.

Organization

While NPH embraces Catholic values, it is not officially connected or affiliated with any Church, and as a private institution, relies on outside sponsorship and private donations, mostly thanks to collecting offices all over the world.

NPH International is an organization with a board of directors who oversee funding and general guidelines. Reporting to this international board are national directors, one from each of the nine countries.

Within the home of each country there are one or more house directors, who oversee the daily operations of the homes and the well being of the children. Both the national and home directors are usually former pequenos themselves.

Taking care of the daily needs of the children are caregivers, made up of older pequenos devoting a year of service to their younger siblings, as well as volunteers from around the world.

In addition, there are various staff employed in each of the homes.

Notable Patrons

Notable Friends

Statistics

as of December 31, 2006. Taken from [www.nph.org]

NPH Total Bolivia D. Republic El Salvador Guatemala Haiti Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Peru
Number of Children 3,113 40 120 377 304 506 536 884 310 36
In Primary School 1,559 25 86 267 160 363 62 410 168 18
In Secondary School 583 3 1 53 100 59 54 218 90 5
In High School 318 - - 18 27 - 97 176 - -
In University 88 - - - 4 3 11 69 1 -
New arrivals 462 40 26 81 49 50 36 93 55 32

References

  1. ↑ Erich Fromm, Michael MacCoby (1996). Social Character in a Mexican Village. Transaction Publishers, p. 213. ISBN 1-56000-876-8.

External links

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