In 2002, this parish began an outreach ministry to El Hogar, in Honduras.

The mission of El Hogar Projects is to provide a loving home and education in a Christian environment for abandoned, orphaned and hopelessly poor children, enabling them to fulfill their potential as productive human beings.

El Hogar continues to serve the most destitute children in and around the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

In 2002, 15 parishioners assisted with renovations to the facilities. The following year, two teams of fifteen each began the conversion of a property outside the city into the new technical institute.

Since that initial mission in 2002, scores of parishioners have made the life changing trek to El Hogar to help improve the lives of the children.

Over the next three weeks, this space will have a description of El Hogar, the work that goes on there and how we make a difference.

El Hogar has grown from a single home to three homes and schools with four programs: Elementary School, Middle School, Agricultural School, and a Technical Institute serving about 230 children ages five to 20.

Some children are truly abandoned or orphaned, others cannot be provided for by their impoverished families in a country where $2,700 is the annual per capita average income and 53 percent of the population lives below the poverty level.

The average educational level is only second grade. But children at El Hogar receive a sixth grade education at the Elementary School and a chance for a future.

They then move into a Middle School program of life-skills, allowing them to grow physically, mentally and spiritually to prepare for a technical education at either the Episcopal Agricultural School or at Saint Mary ’s Technical Institute.

The next parish trip to El Hogar is scheduled for March 1-8, 2008.

Next week – more on the schools of El Hogar.