Blog / News
Big Moments
- Sep 6, 2011
We drove to Antigua this morning to meet up with the Mike’s Angels team. They flew in from Atlanta and have been here since Saturday as well. It was great to finally meet them.
We visited the main orphanage that they partner with, and worked with several of the children that they felt needed therapy help. The kiddos at God Bless The Children are the most adorable, snuggly, well cared for orphans you’ll ever meet! The founder, Cynthia, intentionally keeps the number of orphans below 15 because she wants it to feel more like a family. Most of the kids are under the age of 3, and they all call her “Tia”, which means “aunt.”
We had lots of big moments today – we taught one baby how to crawl for the first time, taught a 4-year-old little girl how to speak in two-word phrases for the first time, and enabled a toddler to walk independently.
About a week before we left for this trip, we got an email from Mike’s Angels founder, Trish, saying that Cynthia informed her of another orphanage in town called Anini that has 65 children with special needs. We were able to squeeze in a visit to Anini Orphanage this afternoon, but only had time to take a tour of their facility. It became immediately clear that they need lots of help. There wasn’t much we could do in the short hour, so we’ve switched some plans around and we will be heading back there for the entire day tomorrow. It’s a bit overwhelming to know how or where to start because they have so much need, but we are ready to do whatever we can and hopefully develop a plan to come back in the future once we assess their specific needs. We’re so thankful that Cynthia connected us with this orphanage!
At Anini, a lot of the children were removed from their homes by the government, and yet the government doesn’t fund their care at Anini. Anini runs solely on donations. They previously were able to hire a physical therapist and speech therapist, but those funds have long run out, so they are unable to afford therapy services for the kids. They have a great facility, and the director and her staff were all very welcoming. We’re looking forward to going back tomorrow and helping as many children as we can!
