El Redil Childrens Home

We are currently in Paraguay at El Redil Childrens home. We have been here for about 5 days now (15 more days here) and we have learned so much about the terrible conditions the children from this home have come from and are going through.

Felix is 9 years old and is diagnosed with scabes. When he first arrived at the home in February he had all open wounds all over his body and they almost couldn´t let him live here because they thought it would be contagious. Now after a few months his skin is still red and swollen all over his body but it´s not as bad. He has to get special treatment done which is very expensive and there is no money in the Army in Paraguay so they struggle to get the finiancial help necessary to help his condition.

Sylvia and Librada are sisters at the home. Their mother left them when they were very young and they were extremely malnurished to the point where they didn´t even know how to chew. The captain acutally had to grab their jaw and their head to show them that they were able to chew. Slyvia´s case was so severe that she can´t walk properly and her condition is irreversible. Librada is 13 and looks 8 because of her malnutrition and she has kidney failure and she needs open heart surgery but it´s very dangerous and very expensive. They both have lice and the staff had to cut their hair really short. Because their hair is so short many of the children make fun of them calling them men.

WHen Felix and his sister Miriam arrived here they didn´t speak any spanish (only the native Guarani) and had no shoes and had never seen silverware before. They didn´t know how to eat. And when they were given a plate of food they only ate the yuca (which is a plain starchy potatoe that just makes you feel full, it´s not very nutritious and tastes gross).

THese are just a few of the many stories we have been told about the children in this home. It´s so devastating to see. We have been working on repairing the building but it still needs a whole lot of work.

Every day we drop off the children at their school which is the worst school in the area, nobody wants to put their kids in that school. But the home is forced to make them go there because they have no money to put them anywhere else. The teachers at the school don´t even call these children by their names. They just say "hey kid from the home." One kid from the home actually got sliced in the head with a scissor by another kid from the school. It is just terrible. The education there is corrupt, the kids will graduate from a grade even if they fail. So kids can be in 6th grade and not even know how to read. There is a better school close to the home but it costs ten dollars a month per child.

There is also an outpost that the officers who are stationed at the home run. Since there was no money for the outpost some of the people in the community had to help build it. They got the supplies donated from various companies. It doesn´t even have four walls. It has three walls and half of a roof. Half of that roof is filled with holes (which is metal sheet) The ground is made up of broken slabs and dirt. The bricks that make up the walls are all different shapes and sizes. It´s in a very poor neighborhood. We walked around inviting kids to vacation bible school and saw some of the homes that they live in. Most of the kids either have sandals or no shoes and we were wearing like 5 layers and we were still cold! Though there is a great language barrier between us, all they want to do is be hugged and loved. It breaks our heart.

We are telling you all this because we want to do something about it. We feel it is our duty to reach out to these kids and the country of Paraguay.


Allison, Lilybeth and Ashley