In Bolivia one in three girls will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday, 75% of these cases occur in their inner circle, home or school. If the sexual abuse doesn’t stop and trauma healing therapy is done, a chain of sad events will most likely follow, which include abuse of substances, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, sexual exploitation and more.
This makes that large populations of girls currently are living in very unsafe environments, being abused and exploited by the families that should be taking care of them. The resources currently available to help these at-high risk girls are really small. This is one of the reasons why the horrible events keep on repeating from one generation to the next one.
The core of Amparo’s Restoration Program is Girls Homes. They are designed to create a safe and loving environment. Our desire is to create a family type atmosphere and thus our maximum occupancy in a home is 12 girls. Girls between the ages of 6 and 13 can enter the home. They will reside in the home until they reach 18 years of age.
Per home we have three house aunts that work full time and one part time, one social worker and one psychologist who invest at least 20 hours per week each. This structure provides personal care for the girls. Girls live 24/7 in a home. We provide for all their needs (housing, food, education, spiritual formation, etc.) and are fully responsible for them. Amparo covers all expenses for the child to include medical, dental, education, counseling and spiritual growth.
Given the sexual nature of the abuse the girls suffered all house staff are women. We do have male administrative staff, staff from the Outreach Program and trusted volunteers who spend time at the homes, providing Godly male figures.
We work with local Government all along the process. Sometimes we bring cases of girls suffering abuse and/or exploitation to Childhood Services and other times is them coming to us to place girls in our homes. With each girl that lives in an Amparo Home due procedure was followed, pertinent local authorities (usually Childhood judges) gave legal guardianship to Amparo.
Most of the girls that we have seen come to live to our Girl’s Home have come through our Outreach Program. As we identify crimes of sexual abuse, forced mendacity, forced labor or even forced prostitution of underage girls. Usually this crime does not happen from one moment to the next. Sadly the girls at highest risk have already been neglected, sexually abused and forced take adult roles. These vulnerable girls always come from highly dysfunctional families, live in extreme poverty, are being forced to beg or work on the streets, have family members who participate in prostitution, have parents who are alcoholics and drug addicts, live in dangerous areas or lack proper guardianship. It is this cases we bring to Childhood services for the girls to be removed from their current places and brought to our Girls home.
On March 2018 our home was recognized by local Government as a ‘role model’ and ‘unique’ in its kind in all of Bolivia.
Our Homes promote comprehensive development and seeks to create the environment where all girls come to know God as Father and their own intrinsic value as a reflection of the God who created them. It is our top priority long-term to see the girls become disciples of Jesus.