Friends of Children Everywhere
Today, we have just under 100 kids on our Casa Bernabé (CB) campus. These children will eventually leave us in one of two ways, they will be reunited with their families or they will age out of our care. Guatemala has begun to place a priority on family reintegration, mandating that children are not to be in our care for longer than 6 months. In 2019, we saw our largest group of children to date, reunited with their families, 34 CB kids.
For 43 of our children, family will not be an answer or a resource. These adolescents, aged 13-18, are children of Casa Bernabé, they have primarily grown up within our walls and under our care. Within the next 5 years, all of them will age out to independence. Our job is to make sure they are prepared to take on independence successfully. Without this program, these children are highly likely to fall back into a life of abuse, poverty, and trauma outside the walls of CB. This group of kids are the focus of Project : Independence.
Over the next five years, Casa Bernabé will further develop and utilize the individual Life Plans for 43 orphans and vulnerable children currently at CB through Project: Independence. Their Life Plans will be developed into a traceable, measurable plan with evidence-based outputs and outcomes. This will further the children’s psychosocial health, physical well-being, strengthen their spirituality, reframe their understanding of family, and educate them to ultimately prepare them for an economically sustainable and employed life.
