Samantha Dever

Sarah Moran
First Year Seminar
18 November 2014-

Service Learning Project

I spent my Service Learning Project at Hogar Cristiano Orphanage in Puntarenas. The
orphange currently has 76 children, mainly females, ranging from only a few months to 17 years
old. It is Roman Catholic, run by La Congregacion de las Hermanas Misioneras de la Asuncion
and overseen by the state Child Protection Agency. As volunteers, it was our responsibility to
provide basic recreational support to the kids, as well as some academic help. The children had
rotating schedules of their own, including chores, school, eating/bathing times, so we had the
opportunity of getting to know almost all of them. Through getting to know these children, I had
the opportunity to reflect these experiences on my own life, increasing my value of social
perspective. I have learned that there is a purpose far beyond just feeling good about
volunteering, that it also has a stronger mutual impact. This goes with the saying, giving is
receiving. I also came to realize I genuinely enjoy seeing the bridge between different social
classes, specifically the higher/middle class helping the less fortunate. In terms of my own
future, I truly wish to work within this relationship and concentrate on social/corporate
responsibility. In terms of the relationship between our group and the orphanage, it was clear
they do not frequently receive long-term volunteers like us. This made the effect of the
collaboration on the children very visible. They really appreciated it and cherished the time we
had together. As a group, we realized this and made a point to show how important it was for us
to show good examples for the children. It also shows the importance of cross-cultural aspects

such as family life. This made me question my own ethical identity in this situation; a
voluntourist. This is currently a big debate, especially in orphanages. Do nonpermanent
volunteers with orphan harm the nurture process of a child, forming a feeling of abandonment?
After all, stability and permanence plays a great role in long-term success for a child.
Hogar Cristiano has a goal of providing appropriate training for girls and adolescents to
develop the skills necessary to enable them to reintegrate into society through a loving,
personal and spiritual care. I believe they do a very good job providing the physical necessities a
child needs in order to grow up in society. The living and sleeping conditions were very good for
the children, and they are fed the necessary dietary needs on a daily basis. However, I believe
part of these necessary skills is to nurture each child on a one-on-one basis. Of course this is
extremely hard in an orphanage setting, as the faculty to child ratio doesnt match favorably.
This is a common issue brought up with the concept of orphanages. However, in relations to
other orphanages around the world, Hogar Cristiano is much smaller than others who can have
up to hundreds of orphans. This makes the relationship for the orphans at Hogar Cristiano more
intimate, rather than being looked at as just another child. Also, on the topic of voluntourism,
Hogar Cristiano has stronger limits on their visitor policy. They are visibly very strict with who is
coming in their orphanage, why they wish to come, and the duration of their stay. Seeing this
policy, I noticed I had an important job to remember my place as a volunteer, and not get too
involved with the children and their previous lives. Instead, I looked at it as a learning
experience for me, rather than having that idea of being the gringo coming to help. This also
makes the think, is an orphanage the best option for a child? Every country handles these
situations differently, including kinship care and foster care as other options. In a study by the
Faith to Action initiative, it has been said that some children placed in kinship care may face
bias, exclusion, or discrimination from caregivers and community members or may be at risk of

neglect, abuse, or exploitation (Faith to Action Imitative). Likewise, it is possible for the foster
family system to create an abandonment feeling, as children can go from house to house. In
fact, the average number of foster houses in the US that a foster child lives through is three
homes (News and Announcements). This is the option the United States Child Protective
Services uses. There are clearly flaws in every option possible, which makes it hard to
determine what is the best situation possible for an abandoned child. The ultimate treatment
for this is to go to the source of the problem. This means strengthening family care and
preventing the need for a placement of neglected children. The other problem includes poverty.
Poverty is a primary reason that children are abandoned because their parents are not able to
provide them with the proper food, shelter, and education. Of course it isnt easy to give every
orphan or foster child a loving family, but by breaking down the issue on a global level
(education, poverty) it can certainly by helped.

Works Cited
The Faith To Action Initiative, 2014. Children, Orphanages, and
Families: (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
"News and Announcements." AdoptUSKids. N.p., n.d. Web. 18
Nov. 2014.