Big Bend Gazette :: Looking after neighbors in need: House Home for street children in Ojinaga

Along Ojinaga’s main street, is an unnamed building with a metal gate in the middle – Albergue Casa Hogar de Chihuahua (Shelter House Home), the site of a heartening collaboration between Mexican and American individuals and organizations to improve the lives of some of Ojinaga’s street children.

Casa Hogars exist across Mexico as shelters for children who are homeless, abused, neglected, indigent, or orphaned. In some cases the cause may be simply financial, a single mother being unable to support her child. In this case, the child stays at House Home during the week, receives shelter, food and care, and goes to school during the day. The mothers pick up their children at weekends. Situations involving abuse, neglect and drug addiction are more complicated. These children remain in the home year-round, until the parental situation is corrected and it is safe for the child to go home.

At present Ojinaga’s casa hogar, on Libre Comercio Blvd, just before Hotel Cañon de Peguis and opposite a taco stand on the right, houses 32 children, aged 2-17 years.

House Homes are regulated by Mexico’s social service agency (DIF) which also places most of the children who enter the homes. But little financial support is provided by the federal government. Operating costs are paid by charities, institutions and the public. City and state governments provide some support, but basically the volunteers who run the House Homes have to find the money to pay utilities, purchase the food, and provide wages for some of their workers.

Ojinaga has a population of just fewer than 20,000. It is not a rich community. However, its border location gives it access to American support and, since its start in 1990, ACH has benefited from the link. It has been blessed equally by tireless, motivated professional women and men in the community.

But the reason why a roomful of excited children, local dignitaries, American visitors, House Home workers and Ojinaga residents rose to their feet and loudly applauded when I was visting was a 94-year American lady, sitting serenely at a table in the front: Teda Neill.

Teda Neill, then residing in Fort Davis, first came to Ojinaga in 1991 with a Texan charity, One Family International, to investigate possible needs for children. ACH was in existence, but struggling. Children were sleeping two to a bed, in cramped rooms, with bare walls and exposed wiring. The toilet and washing facilities were primitive. Teda saw a need and pitched in.

Teda Neill (center, sitting) with children and staff. (Jim Glendinning)

Teda’s own life had been difficult, including a deprived upbringing and exposure to polio. After raising two children, she earned a degree at SRSU, and was later employed for 15 years in west Texas by the State of Texas as a child welfare worker. Later she worked with the aged and disabled. After official retirement at age 69, her energy seemed to get even greater. It was then that the ACH challenge arose.

As a member of the Presbyterian Church in Fort Davis, Neill first turned there for help. This led to involvement by other Presbyterian Church groups elsewhere in Texas, then to approaches to civic groups, and to individuals. Never bashful about asking for money, Neill has an elegance of style and a direct manner of asking for help that is usually successful. Soon a new organization was formed stateside, Casa Hogar Orphanage Inc., a non-profit fundraising counterpart to the Mexican operating entity.

The moving force on the American team is Victoria Bannister of Alpine who efficiently oversees CHOI Inc. with good humor, combined with a high degree of sensitivity to Mexican feelings. Funds and gifts like clothing and school supplies are solicited from church groups (Presbyterian, Baptist and First Christian Church in Alpine) and civic groups like Knights of Columbus and the Pilot Club of Alpine, even from a foundation (the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation of Dallas) as well as from individuals. Funds are sent via bank transfer, and gifts are delivered to the ACH doorstep in Ojinaga.

2005 and 2006 were good years for Casa Hogar Orphanage. Construction of two new dormitory rooms, a dining room and kitchen was completed. It was for the ribbon-cutting of this new block that I went to visit on January 6, coinciding with the Christmas party for the children when they opened their donated presents. In Mexico opening Christmas gifts is done on 12th night, not on Christmas Day.

Arriving in a small convoy which included Teda Neill, we reach ACH Ojinaga by 9.30 a.m. The Mexican staff hugs the Americans with warmth; a young boy shakes my hand, children rush to Teda and cling to her. We unload gifts for each child. The children watch wide-eyed, excited but mannered. But they will have to wait before opening them. First there is a Mexican/American business meeting; then the ribbon-cutting, then lunch and speeches.

The business meeting, in a large, cold room, proceeds briskly. The budget is discussed and it is agreed to hold over some money as reserve. The Mexicans are consulted on each point. Marco Polo Alvarez, an accountant who was instrumental in starting ACH Ojinaga is a key player, as is Olivia Noriega Chavez, the current President of the Casa Hogar, a florist. Teda sits close to the only heater in the room. Whenever the door opens, small faces peer in to look at the Christmas gifts which are piled up inside the room. The meeting finishes after 2 hours.

A small group crowds into the entrance to the dining room. A uniformed officer from the military garrison hands a pair of scissors to Teda, who cuts a yellow ribbon with a large bow, stretched across the doorway. We go inside and sit down at large tables with white tablecloths surmounted with elaborate two foot high flower arrangements (courtesy of Olivia), on chairs wrapped around with yellow trim. Teda sits at a table in front, the children are at tables in the back; there are 60 people present altogether. On a platform facing the room is the top table which the mayor, military officer, Ojinaga council president, Olivia and Victoria share. The mayor makes a short speech acknowledging Teda’s prime role. Other brief speeches follow, a priest blesses the event, the children sing, and a video of the year’s events is played.

A tour of the new quarters reveals two dormitory rooms, 15 beds to a room, each bed with an orange cover (girls) and blue (boys). The oldest boy teenager has an adjacent room to himself. This is Luis, a 17-year old whom the ACH staff hopes will go to college. If he does, he will be the first one to do so in the 15 years of ACH’s existence and a role model for the others. Meanwhile, there are plans to turn the old dormitory space into a computer room and library.

New dorm room at Albergue Casa Hogar de Chihuahua. (Photo by Victoria Bannister)

Finally, the children are handed their presents. For the youngest, a two-year old called Victoria, the package is bigger than she is. She looks on in wonder as someone helps her to open it. All the children take their presents off to some corner of the yard, sharing the experience with the others. Children here have no private storage place for private possession, indeed they don’t actually own the clothes they wear. They share their clothes on a daily basis, a policy of the ACH.

The American visitors are taking photographs. All the kids want to be photographed with their Teda, who has a word and a hug for everyone. There’s a lot of love circulating around this cold courtyard in Ojinaga. This Shelter-House concept is working; youngsters in need are getting care and love, perhaps for the first time. But how many more are there out there, I wonder?

Casa Hogar Orphanage Inc. seeks help in maintaining and expanding Casa Hogar in Ojinaga. The money is well spent and efficiently supervised, and results are beginning to show. $35 will sponsor a child for a month, $420 for a year. This type of personalized contribution adds a human touch, a name and a person you can visit. Other options are: $100 for a school uniform. $200 for a caretaker’s salary for a month. $185 scholarship for a teen for one semester, $370 for a whole year. Any contribution, for a designated purpose or not, will be valuable in continuing and expanding the work of Albergue Casa Hogar in Ojinaga. Send donations to: CHOI, P.O. Box 840, Alpine, Texas 79831. For more information, e-mail to vbannister@hughes.net.

Jim Glendinning was raised in rural southern Scotland. He has worked a variety of jobs in the USA and Britain: restaurant owner, tour manager, transatlantic charter flight operator, tea-room owner, tour guide, and director of a national student travel company. Between jobs he travels frequently. Glendinning has lived in Alpine since 1991 and writes regularly for local papers, updates his guide book, and takes tour groups to Chihuahua’s Copper Canyon.