About the Project
Expand Casa Hogar has a 501(c)(3) status through our fiscal sponsor, La Pena of Austin, TX (http://www.lapena-austin.org/). All donations are thereby tax-deductible.
My name is Ariana Zaia. I am the creator of the Expand Casa Hogar project. In 2010 I spent six months living in Oaxaca, Mexico, and I have been back twice since then. While in Oaxaca a friend, Ana, introduced me to Casa Hogar Hijos de la Luna. Since then I have spent much of my time in Oaxaca volunteering there. On one of my recent visits I had the pleasure of accompanying Coco (the founder of Casa Hogar) to buy groceries. During the ride there Coco explained to me what the organization wished to accomplish in the coming year. She told me that in the past, when the children reached their teen years, they had to return to their homes because the house is not prepared to take care of adolescents. However, several of the older children who are currently living at Casa Hogar do not wish to return home. One of the girls told Coco “I won’t go because my mother does not even have a house. She lives where she works. And I don’t like the place.” In the case of this young woman living with her mother would mean living in a bar or night club, not a healthy place for a teenage girl. Coco explained to me that to be able to continue sheltering the children into their teenage years they will need more space. Right now the 36 children who sleep there share two bedrooms and one bathroom.
Expand Casa Hogar’s vision is to finance the construction that will be necessary to make it possible for the non-profit to start housing adolescents. With your help we can make their dream come true. The ultimate goal is to reach $50,000. This is a large sum, but it can be reached with your help. Every cent counts.
Please follow here or on Facebook as we work towards making their dream a reality!
Before I go I would like to thank by good friend Ian Pollard, my mom Carmen Bolaños, and my mentor Cynthia Pérez for helping me in so many ways. I will never be able to thank you enough!
Hello Ariana
My name is Don Warthe and I have visited Hijos de la Luna twice with students. We played with the children and bought supplies for the house. I have since retired but will be returning to Hijos twice more this year – the first time with my wife and a small group of young women, to build a solar powered hot water heater. My wife and I will return over Spring Break with 16 students. We are unsure of our goal for this visit, but in addition to playing with the children and providing supplies, we would like to become involved in a project – I found Expand Casa Hogar on the internet and thought I would contact you for more information.
The focus of our visits to Oaxaca in general and Hijos in particular, is to provide learning opportunities and to help with local community projects as a means to this education. Please let me know if you think we could work together and any information you might be able to provide.
thanks Don
December 24, 2012 at 1:49 pm