Many Lives, one mission

Catalina was a nun living in Sabaneta, Colombia who lived in the local church and ran a preschool for local children. In 1995, her world changed, due to a small, 18 day old baby named Mauricio who was found by a priest and given to Catalina to care for. She had a mission to save lives while serving God and since that fateful day she has not stopped trying to give children a better life.

Por: Sara Toro Ramos

She welcomed Mauricio and a few days later, she found another homeless child named Edwin. She and another nun, Silvia, decided to do something greater for these and other children so they created the Trinitario Home because they wanted to provide all children with a better life.

The Home would offer children a different option from the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF). The ICBF, an organization with the Colombian government, opened in 1968 and is the only organization that helps children who are homeless, displaced, abandoned, with single mothers or victims of domestic violence. Colombia does not have a foster care system like the United States. Instead, the ICBF provides families with the tools necessary to aid them in caring for their children, however, sometimes, ICBF must take custody and raise the children until they are 18 or someone adopts them.

ICBF does not have the best reputation in Colombia because there are many children in the program and not enough places for them. Some of the children are not in the best conditions, and sometimes do not find families to adopt them. Also, the media has discovered that the staff of ICBF abused children. The Home provides another option for children and families who would otherwise find their way to ICBF.

More than a foundation or a foster care, it is, as its name says, a Home where the children according to Silvia "learn, love, eat, share and be children.” Children live in the Home but parents retain custody and visit one weekend per month. Libardo is 11 years old and came to the Home 2 years ago because his mother did not work. He loves the Home and consider himself a happy kid believing that Home is better than in ICBF.

The Home is currently caring for 14 kids. Jairo, a boy that is 7 years old and has been going to the Home for 4 years, says “there is always someone to play with.” Each day the children go to mass, school, do homework, clean the rooms and kitchen. They also help with the cooking, including peeling potatoes because they "need to learn how to be someone in life," according to Silvia. When a kid is not behaving the nuns take away trips, tv, weekends with parents or send the child to a room and pray until it is cold.

The children do not “age out” so they can stay in the Home as long as they need. Generally boys stay until around 20 years old and girls stay until around 16 years old. The nuns do not keep in touch with many of the children who leave the Home and although the children succeed while they are at the Home, many enter a vicious cycle with their own children ending up in the Home living the same story their parents lived. Just 4 children, in 23 years, left the Home and attended the university and now have a career.

The Home is not regulated by the Colombian government. The government visited the Home in the past and evaluated how it was doing and has not come again. The nuns at the Home are untrained, they just do what they think is necessary in based on their own experiences. With the help of another foundation, the Home hired, its first psychologist that has been helping the children. Marcela Ramos, the psychologist, said that some of the children are improving their behavior but others need more time and help.

Trinitario Home earns money through donations, other help, selling second-hand clothes and empanadas, but it is not enough. They also need more volunteers because only 5 nuns are at the Home and most of the time there is only one to watch the children because the others are working on making empanadas.

These nuns have given their lives to help this kids, but to be more successful and become a truly better option than ICBF, they need training. It is not only about teaching children values, but providing them help from professionals, making them mentally stronger and giving them opportunities so that when they leave the Home they can have a plan. If this happen the children will be more successful and the dream of Silvia that the kids “won´t suffer the rest of their lives” would be true.