Photo via orphanoutreach.org

Honduras ministry helps young women step into adulthood

The ministry of Orphan Outreach to the Dump City in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is helping young women step into adulthood, reports MNN.

When girls attending the Amor, Fe, y Esperanza (AFE School) turn 15 and are about to graduate, the school celebrates a rite of passage with a dress and high heels. The shoes symbolize becoming a woman, being somebody, and one day leaving the garbage dump.

The girls walk into their future with God in their hearts.

Orphan Outreach does much more in partnership with AFE. The ministry there began when Jeony Ordonez saw children as young as 5 and 6 picking their way across the piles of garbage. His daughter begged him to find a way to help those children.

Jeony discovered approximately 300 children working at the dump in Tegucigalpa, collecting trash to sell, and facing the challenges of disease, forced child prostitution, and death.

The ministry started addressing the educational and spiritual needs of these children. A mission group helped out by constructing two buildings on the land the government gave them. Two more buildings will serve as a kitchen/cafeteria and a high school building.

The school has classes from kindergarten to high school and serves approximately 120 students. Orphan Outreach is working with Jeony on Social Justice ministry to advocate a change in the laws so that no more children will be able to work in the dump.

Orphan Outreach is working in collaboration with AFE to provide operational funds for the school, funds for connecting electricity to the campus, along with other construction projects.

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TAGS: Honduras Tegucigalpa dump Orphan Outreach ministry young women adulthood AFE School

[03/12/2010]

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