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Hogar Luby is my service site. My first time there was very hard. I encountered suffering like I had never seen before. Children who suffer severely from malnutrition, lack of proper care and attention, lack of medical care, lack of dental care, and lack of proper supplies like diapers, feeding bottles, toys, clothes, entertainment, educational tools, and wheelchairs.
At first, I was handling everything fine. I was somehow able to stand the suffering.
However, as I went around and visited the children who are forced to lie on their backs and stare at nothing but the ceiling all day, I saw a crib in the corner that no-one had visited yet. I walked over to give a friendly "Hola, ¿como estas?" When I came to the crib, I had to fight a dam of tears that would later break.
The girl's body was/is nothing more than a frail skeletal structure with dry skin stretched over the frame. Her legs, of which all bones could/can be seen, had numerous blood-oozing bed sores with flies and mosquitoes buzzing around. She barely breathes. When she does breathe, her lungs, throat, or who-knows-where makes a terrible rattling sound. She is dying. She is dying slowly and painfully. She is dying mainly because the same slop she gets fed every day contains nothing more than water and the cheapest of the cheap of food.
Danielle is a boy in a wheelchair at Hogar Luby. We believe Danielle to have cerebral palsy. Basically, he is 100% mentally, and his only disabilities are physical. This kid is very intelligent, yet every day he must sit in his wheelchair and either listen to his radio (which is a luxury which someone must have donated) or just sit.
One of the "babies" at Hogar Luby is of a Dominican-Haitian background. The boy has the body of an infant, but he is actually 4 years old. He would have been completely functional in all aspects, except his parents did not see fit to take proper care (again, mainly food) of a "half-breed".
Ojito (Luis is his real name) is a lot of fun. We don't know what disabilities he has, but we do know that he has the normal mental capacity of a boy his age (if not more). One of his favorite things to do is to grab one of us volunteers and drag us into the "classroom". The classroom is a tiny space with a few old desks that are falling apart. The classroom also lacks any real teaching materials besides a blackboard and crayons. But he takes us into the classroom and points and shrieks to get us to grab what he wants -- he is unable to speak anything understandable. It's a lot of fun "fighting" with him about what he wants. If he seems to be displeased, he likes to let you know by giving you a friendly little punch in the shoulder. Of course we "punch" back with a light, playful tap, and it turns into a game. In the picture at the top of this page, you can see me spending time with Ojito in the classroom. (I was lucky enough to find what he wanted!)
The workers at Hogar Luby are absolutely incredible and amazing. "Overworked" is a word that can hardly do justice to what these people do. Now, the care the children receive is not the best, but keep in mind it is all the too-few workers can do. They do do their best.
There are many, many more children at Hogar Luby. The children I mentioned were just a few of the residents there. The main problems at Hogar Luby are malnutrition, understaffing, uneducated and overworked staff, lack of proper care and equipment, lack of space (as many as 17 kids are packed into a room), lack of funding, and lack of acknowledgement that these children exist.