TIJUANA “”mdash; Twelve miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border,
one of Tijuana’s many orphanages sits on a gradual hill,
overlooking a landscape lush with beds of green grass and studded
with patches of broken-down houses and tire yards.
Many of the 47 children who live at Hogar, the name of the
orphanage, surrounded a Spiderman piñata Saturday afternoon,
laughing and giggling while they scavenged for lollipops and other
candies that fell with each blow to Peter Parker’s superhero
alter-ego.
Some of the students from UCLA that made the three-hour drive to
deliver donated goods to the orphanage speak to the children in
short, broken Spanish, asking them “cuantos?” (how
many) pieces of chocolate they had and warning “con
cuidado!” (be careful) when another student was about to step
on Spiderman’s head.
Each year students from UCLA, most from the University Catholic
Center, go to Hogar to play with the children and deliver food and
other essentials. On this trip, students delivered diapers and food
among other things, but Father Pat Hensy said they often bring
checks and cash because prices in Tijuana are cheaper.
Hensy has been at the University Catholic Center for three
years, but said UCLA students from the University Catholic Center
have been visiting Hogar for about two decades, averaging between
one and three trips to the orphanage each year. Students from the
Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children and from
the Social Justice Alliance also came on this trip.
The prevalence of orphans in Tijuana is a serious problem, said
Hogar’s director Father Steven Ochoa, noting that there are
around 18 orphanages in the city.
Some children were abandoned at the hospital, some were found
homeless on the busy streets of Tijuana, while others were taken
from their homes by Mexican child welfare services because of abuse
or neglect, Ochoa said.
“This is the first safe environment they’ve had in
their lives,” Ochoa said. “What excites me is knowing
that we have a chance to give these kids some basic tools to work
with.”
The orphanage has four bright white buildings with a few
multi-colored stained glass windows. The highest building on the
hill is a chapel, and the children, most aged from newborn to 9,
attend a Catholic grammar school.
Ochoa said many of the children are illiterate when they come to
the orphanage, and its daily schedule is centered around
education.
Each morning the children wake up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for
school at 7:30 a.m.
They return home from school at 2 p.m. and eat lunch, their
biggest meal of the day, and at 3 p.m. they begin studying with a
tutor Ochoa has hired to help the orphans catch up with the other
students.
From 5 to 6 p.m. the children have a break and watch TV, play on
the jungle gym or see-saw outside. They then eat dinner, often a
traditional Mexican dish of beans, rice and meat, chicken or fish,
and begin showering to get ready for lights out at 8 p.m.
Marta Garcia is one of the women who helps take care of the
children in the orphanage. In her hair she wears “tela de
encaje,” a black piece of cloth with intricate designs, and
says she often feels as though the orphanage is like a family.
“We get sad and we also become attached to them when they
leave. I feel like they’re our kids and for them we’re
their mothers too,” Garcia said, speaking through a
translator. Many of the children will not stay at the orphanage
their entire childhood and instead will be placed in homes.
Hensy said the trip to Tijuana is important for students because
they can learn about other cultures and see that material goods are
not the important things in life.
“What does make (the children) happy is not things, but
physical contact,” Hensy said. “I think (the students)
are very moved.”
Jeremy Lautan, a fourth-year sociology and education studies
student, said the trip to Tijuana broadened his perspective on the
world.
Lautan also said the trip was important for students to see the
tangible change that they can make in someone’s life.
“I don’t think enough college students realize the
power they have,” Lautan said.
Graciela Sandoval, Bruin senior staff, helped translate for
this story.