Meet Raquel!
Hi everyone! I’m Raquel. I work in the administration at Casa Hogar Ecatepense. I’ve been here for almost 10 years and let me tell you, this is NOT an easy job. We’re usually understaffed and ALWAYS overworked. But as I see it, so are most mothers.
True, I’m not their mother but over the past several years I’ve become extremely close with the children, especially those who have been here for a while. There have been so many times when I was thinking about leaving (like many others have done during my time here) but I’ve always stayed because I love these children and feel that they need me. Especially the older kids. They come to me constantly for advise. I don’t always have the answer but I always try and respond with whatever information I can give them so they leave feeling better.
When (Create Purpose) came into our home and wanted to teach us about nutrition I was very happy. I’ve lived with HIPOTIROIDISMO for quite some time now and I know that nutrition plays an important role in that. I work closely with our chef and the two of us can cook really well but we never really thought about the nutrition of the meals that we serve. It’s not very easy cooking for 40+ children with minimal resources and so many different tastebuds. We have always just cooked with what we had on hand.
At first, I didn’t know anything about nutrition. I mean, probably less than nothing. But after only the first two sessions with Ximena, I felt that I was already able to improve on the children’s health with what we learned. That made me really excited to continue in the Nutrition Program and over the past year in the program I have learned so much and can directly see the benefits of what we’re learning. Children aren’t as tired. They’re not so hyperactive. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still very hyper but you can definitely see a difference in their behavior.
Life at the orphanage is hard. I imagine it’s like this at most orphanages. But here we feel it’s our job to improve the lives of every child that lives here. That’s why we love working with (Create Purpose.) We understand that we don’t know everything and we can use all the help we can get.
We hope that someday we can get into (their) Technology Program. That really really excites me. Most of these kids are way behind in school and ever since most work is now done on the computer they have fallen even further behind.
I think I’ll be here until I retire. I love what I do. Even though it’s very hard I can’t imagine my life without these children in it.
