At Casa Hogar we believe that all children deserve the chance for a better future. For that reason we use an integrated model of care focusing on all of the key aspects of building a healthy childhood and setting our kids on the right path for the future. Our model is based on the Boys Town Model. There are three key aspects to our care: Faith, Family, and Future for our children.
FAITH
The importance of faith life is not to be underemphasized. The final aspect of the Family Program is values and spirituality. Today’s world has learned to be tolerant of a lack of values and has pushed aside spirituality to the point where it makes it easy to create problems and then hard to overcome them. The old-fashioned values of honesty, respect, hard work, loyalty, morals, and sense of Christian duty have their wisdom. Combining values with morals and spirituality, we are able to teach the kids sacredness of life, respect for self and for others as well as give them hope. The kids have had so much taken away from them, most notably, their families. Their future, as anyone’s, is questionable. With a strong sense of what is “right” and “wrong”, the kids will be able to lead healthy lives and with their faith will be able to get through life’s challenges. We want them to know that whatever anyone takes from them, no one can take their faith, their hope in God.
The children go to Mass every day with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament available twice each day for Family Teachers and the children, as well as Confession. The kids take preparatory classes for First Holy Communion, Baptism and Confirmation in addition to catechism classes. We offer them what we know and have to the best of our ability, but ultimately growth in their faith life is up to them.
FAMILY
The most important element of our model of care is the family-style living; this is what differentiates Casa Hogar from any other orphanage or child-care institution in Peru. So many of our kids have never experienced family living because of the absence of one or both parents due to terrorism, sickness, alcohol or drug abuse, jail, and the list goes on. We use the Family Model which is modeled after the Boys Town Program from Nebraska. In this model the children live in families composed of eight children of the same gender and a married couple who serves as surrogate parents to the children. Often, the couple will have their own children who also live with them. Not only is this great because the kids receive a lot of attention, but also because they are able to see how a husband and wife should interact with and respect each other.
In addition, they are able to see how responsibilities are taken care of and shared between a husband and wife. This modeling witnessed during their youth is not only beneficial to their development now, but will also serve them as a reference for when they want to form their own families in the future.
The Family Model is the key to Casa Hogar’s success. As noted above, the family-style living gives our children an environment completely different from the more traditional orphanage. In addition to the family-style living, the Family Model provides the children with a structured path to learning social skills and tracking their advancements.
For over ninety years, Boys Town has been a refuge of hope for wayward and orphaned children. Its family-based teaching model has been hugely successful in modifying and forming child behavior using scientific methods coupled with human compassion. The success of the Boys Town model is largely due to the perspective that modification needs to happen by helping troubled youth to learn and replace bad behavior with good behavior.
In mid-2009, Casa Hogar was given the rights for the use of the Boys Town Program under their own name outside the United States. Adapted to meet cultural needs, the program is immediately available for use in Spanish. All training material and resources have been translated, and a training program established. The model is comprised of five components, providing the well-needed balance for child development. They include:
Teaching social, academic and independent-living skills
Helping build healthy relationships
Empowering youth through the development of self-government
Fostering values and spirituality
Living in a family life-style
In addition, helping the kids build healthy relationships is key to their success. Because of their past, so many of the kids have not experienced what a real family is like; what friendship is; what a relationship with the opposite gender should entail, etc. Abuse, poor role-modeling, TV content, and lack of morals leads little to the imagination.
Unfortunately, from years of living or witnessing the aforementioned, the kids are doomed to repeat these destructive cycles. Using the Family Program, the kids are taught the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships as well as how to detect if a relationship is heading in the wrong direction. The children learn proper boundaries in terms of their bodies, possessions and opinions, and are taught to respect these boundaries. This gives each child not only a sense of pride of who they are, but it also provides them with a sense of security and self-respect.
FUTURE
Self-government is a term we use to define how one “governs” oneself; their use of self-control or self-discipline. It is an important factor to include when teaching the kids that they are ultimately responsible for what happens to them. Much self-control is learned through teaching kids skills such as how to express their feelings, to calm themselves when angry, to express their disagreement, to be tolerant of others, etc. Other ways the children learn self-government is through family meetings where they can voice their opinions on decisions being made within the family, solve problems as a group, or just by giving or receiving feedback. The concept is also taught through having the kids work together on group projects where they are held accountable as a group.
Project of Life is a program that sets Casa Hogar apart from most other orphanages, not only in Peru, but also around the world. The years of formation our children receive while at Casa Hogar comes with the hope that we will also be able to guide them to use the abilities learned when they leave the orphange.
Project of Life provides children with:
Guidance and support to finish high school.
Vocational tests for our children to provide a potential career path.
Assistance in applying for scholarships.
Assistance in applying to technical schools and universities.
Payment of entrance fees, tuition, and transportation.
Assistance in rental of a room or apartment to live.
Assistance in construction of a room, roof, or bathroom.
Project of Life provides abundant support to the children who leave Casa Hogar. This project gives the kids hope for a future much brighter than the one they had prior to coming here. It is an essential part of the work done through Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II and is only possible through the financial support received by our benefactors and sponsors.
A few of our 2019 Project of Life Highlights Include:
One graduate finished his degree in International Business and he is now pursuing an advanced education.
A recent graduate began trade school to become a chef.
Three paid internships for graduates with a local company in Administration.
