PROJECTS: Mexico City orphanage

This is a project done at a children’s home called Hogar Dulce Hogar (’Home Sweet Home’) in Mexico City. ‘Hogar’ is a home for over 60 children, from 10 months to 13 years old. The children come from different kinds of backgrounds: some come from the streets and shelters for homeless, battered or terminally-ill women, whereas others have been abandoned by their parents, and some who have been left there by their parents simply cause they could not afford to take care of the them, and others who have been taken forcefully from abusive families.

Most of the children spend all their time in the home, but the older ones go to school from 2pm to 6pm five days a week. Also, some of the children are occasionally picked up by their parents for the weekend. Hogar Dulce Hogar tries to do the best it can with limited resources and staff by providing the children with shelter, meals, clothing, education, medical attention and various recreational activities, all paid for by donations. One can sense the tremendous care the children and staff have towards each other, but one can also see that a lot of the children suffer from different kinds of trauma, both physical (there are children with fetal alcohol syndrome) and psychological (abandonment and mistreatment) due to their background.

Hogar Dulce Hogar has asked me not to identify the children by name.