Honduras (MNN) — The ministry of Orphan Outreach to the Dump
City in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is helping young women step into adulthood.
When girls attending the Amor, Fe, y Esperanza (AFE School)
turn 15 and are about to graduate, the school celebrates a rite of passage with
a dress and high heels. The shoes
symbolize becoming a woman, being somebody, and one day leaving the garbage
dump.
The girls walk into their future with God in their
hearts.
Orphan Outreach does much more in partnership with AFE. The
ministry there began when Jeony Ordonez saw children
as young as 5 and 6 picking their way across the piles of garbage. His daughter begged him to find a way to help
those children.
Jeony discovered approximately 300
children working at the dump in Tegucigalpa, collecting trash to sell, and facing the challenges of disease, forced child prostitution, and death.
The ministry started addressing the
educational and spiritual needs of these children. A mission group helped out by constructing two
buildings on the land the government gave them. Two more buildings will serve as a
kitchen/cafeteria and a high school building.
The school has classes from kindergarten to high school and serves approximately 120 students. Orphan Outreach is working with Jeony on Social Justice ministry to advocate a
change in the laws so that no more children will be able to work in the dump.
Orphan Outreach is working in
collaboration with AFE to provide operational funds for the school,
funds for connecting electricity to the campus, along with other construction
projects. Click here if you can
help.
