Finding Hope Ministries
The children at Finding Hope Ministries have heartbreaking stories. Many of them come from abuse. Some of them were abandoned by their parents. Others grew up never knowing their family. Regardless of their background, Finding Hope provides a safe, loving, stable home for these children so that they can grow and know how to be a part of a family structure.
In the state-run orphanages, where many of them lived before being brought to the children’s home, life was not pleasant. The children often described physical abuse, having to fight for food with older kids, a lack of supervision and guidance, generally no structure or routines, and certainly no love and care from the adult workers.
Finding Hope Ministries was started by Nathan and Anca Merrill when they recognized a need for children to be given a family structure that was missing from the orphanages. Nathan, an American doctor, and Anca, from Romania and educated in social work, started by taking in one young boy, Alin, from the orphanage. Alin’s parents had abandoned him at a train station when he was just four years old. He grew up sleeping outdoors, ordered by his parents to beg for money to bring home for the family, and abused by his father when he would come home with nothing. He was finally left to fend for himself when his parents decided he was more of a burden than a help and left him alone at the station.
Shortly after, Nathan and Anca continued to visit the orphanages and takes those kids who had nowhere else to go, with no family to support them, and give them the structure of a home with individual attention and the chance to live a normal childhood. Today they have taken in eleven children, with two more houses opening soon to give space for an additional 24 kids.
By establishing regular routines, the kids take responsibility for daily chores, cleaning and organizing of the house. They are taught cooking and life skills with internship opportunities at a local restaurant. The older kids are also given the task of ensuring the younger ones keep their rooms tidy, shower and brush their teeth. All these skills and responsibilities together allow the children to develop self-management, leadership and perseverance that will help them as they face increasing challenges as adults.
As most of the kids come from Roma (gypsy) families, Finding Hope also does outreach programs in the gypsy villages to help end the cycle of poverty and abuse. From medical care, dental services, spiritual development and school initiatives, they hope to provide the kids in these villages with a view of a more positive and caring world than the one they are exposed to daily, with abuse, drug use, poverty and poor living conditions.
It was clear from my time at Finding Hope Ministries that all these children have overcome many challenges. To see them outside of the home you would not know what they have been through. They are regular kids, with energy and enthusiasm, smiles on their faces, the occasional sibling conflicts, and a desire for love and attention. To know their backgrounds, however, makes one appreciate how resilient children can be and how they can grow and adapt when provided with the right conditions, even if it takes a little more time.
Consistently over recent years, the Dominican Republic scores at the very bottom of the list of countries for education scores. This is something that the government has been trying to address by hiring more teachers, but still the lack of quality teacher training programs has had a negative impact on the slow progress of academic achievement.