We live in the country of Honduras, where girls can be stolen. 

In Spanish they use the verb robar, to rob or steal.  Where we live, people use this word to describe a few different relational contexts.

1)      Getting Married – If young people don’t have money for a wedding (meaning that they can’t afford to feed the whole village a nice meal), then they might choose to get “married” unofficially.  This is how most of the previous generation got married.  They would generally have their parent’s consent.  The guy would come get the girl in the night sometime and then they’d be considered married.

2)      Eloping – Sometimes without parental consent a girl will be stolen in the night.  The girl is choosing to run away and live with a guy.  Maybe it’s a secret relationship with the boy down the street.  Or, maybe it’s a married guy in his 50s (or older) that’s promised a better life to a girl (we’ve seen as young as 11).

3)      Kidnapping – And then there’s kidnapping.  Men do it as revenge between feuding families or because they think (know) they can live beyond the law.  Thankfully this isn’t commonplace anymore, but it does still happen.

The first two methods of “marriage” are the norm here and often just what’s expected.  Girls often don’t see any other choice for their lives, so they settle for these (usually) short-term relationships.  Some of these “marriages” work, but generally it seems that they’re over in a few months or a couple years. 

The girls are normally left with a kid or two and no way to support themselves, since they probably never finished their education and live in a country with an unemployment rate of about 30%.  They often move home with their parents until they find a new relationship.  And often the new relationship isn’t interested in the kids from the last one, thus more “orphans.”  There’s not much hope in this system. 

So, how are we offering hope?  We’re helping to educate kids from our community and teaching them skills like English and computers so they’re more employable.  We’re encouraging kids to stay in school (and not get “married” so young), and giving some young people work so they can pay for their school fees.  In our Friday Youth Group, we’re teaching about good marriages and how to break out of negative family cycles.  And we’re providing a solid family and home for some of these orphaned and abandoned kids in our Children’s Home.  We hope and pray that God will use our efforts to help change a generation!

Part 1: Teenage Moms

Young teenage moms are commonplace in Honduras.  Statistics from a major hospital here record that the average first pregnancy is at 15-years-old. 

I could probably write all day on our observations of and experiences with teenage moms here, but I’ll try to simplify it into a few main points:

• It’s common and even fairly acceptable for a girl of 13 or 14 to run away with an older guy.  Teenage girls often see this as an escape, often from boredom or an abusive parent or stepparent.  People here call this “getting married,” but there’s usually not a wedding and the relationships generally don’t last long.

• Young girls here often feel trapped by poverty and a lack of options for their lives.  In Honduras, most kids don’t study beyond the 6th grade or the 9th grade, especially in rural areas.  It’s common to be 14, be out of school, and have no job prospects or anything else different over the horizon.  For a young girl, finding a guy and having a baby might seem like a "start" to their lives.

• People here, especially in rural areas, assume that you have to have your babies very early in life.  You’re supposed be finished having kids by your mid-20s.  People don’t criticize teenage moms; it’s normal and expected.

It’s a common scenario for a girl of 20 to have two babies from two different men and be currently alone.  What options does she have?  She’ll either have to move home and hope her parents can support her family, or leave her kids behind and look for work in the city, or find a new man.  If she does find a new man, he very well may say he doesn’t want her other kids.  

Teenage moms often can’t support a baby, financially or emotionally.  Moms sometimes abandon their kids in an effort to "start over" in life when they feel they've run out of options.

In our years in Honduras we've seen this story repeated over and over.    So many girls we know have gotten pregnant young and stopped short their dreams of an education and career.  Unfortunately, they don't believe that they have any other options in life.  

Part of our job here is to encourage girls and help them set goals for their futures.  We tell them to wait for marriage until they're older and educated, and tell them that they're worth waiting for.  We are teaching young people how to have healthy marriages and good parenting skills.  Hopefully we can encourage positive change, for a better future for Honduras and it's young people.

September is a busy month in Honduras, mostly because two of the big holidays fall in this month.   First we celebrated Dia del Niño, Kid's Day.  This year the kids had a party with a piñata in either school or preschool, depending on their age, and then we hosted a carnival during Library time.  Click here to see more photos of our Dia del Niño partying.

Right after Dia del Niño comes Honduras' Independence Day.  The biggest tradition here is that all the kids march in parades with their school.  This year we had kids in every section of our village parade, from the military corp, to the pom-pom squad.  The kids really enjoy participating in this show of national pride.

This September though, we were even busier than normal, because of our new classes, called Tutoria Estudantíl La Esperanza.  Below you can see all the kids lined up on the first day by class level.  We have 60 kids coming, from 4 villages!

The older kids are studying English and computers, taking a music class, and participating in Bible, library time, and sports.  These classes are much more formal than anything we've done on-site before and the kids are really responding and rising to the occasion.  More parents are asking when their kids can start.

Somehow we always think we're building as much building as we'll need, and then we start a new program like this.  We've already outgrown all our Library and office areas!  The above English class is in the "garage."  Plans are already in the works to add on more classroom space to this area.

We're tutoring the younger kids in the basics: reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, and incorporating other fun learning activities into their class time, like pirate treasure hunts!

We are excited to announce that we have five new kids living with us.  

On January 5th we brought in a sibling group of three -- Carolina: 9, Javier: 7, & Fernando: 4 -- along with two more 4-year-olds, Carlos and Lilian.  

This bunch of kids is so full of personality and energy that they're hard to keep up with!  We're so thankful that we have the Activity Center and Playground so the kids have a place to burn off their energy.