Day Two... LOHS in El Salvador

The group had a day full of hard work, and many new experiences. They spent the majority of the day at CISNA, a boys center that is located in a former El Salvador women's prison.

The center typically has 40-60 boys ranging in age from 8-18. Even the youngest of the boys in this orphanage have been exposed to worlds unknown by our teenagers. Many of them have lived on the streets of San Salvador, and some have been involved in inner-city gangs in order to survive. The young men of CISNA sleep in former prison cells, have little or no personal belongings, rarely have shoes to wear and have been sleeping on metal beds with only remnants of old mattresses.

These are photos taken by Starfish on trips in recent months. When the Lone Oak team arrived today the mattresses were even worse, and none of the boys had pillows to rest their heads on...

Upon seeing the need for mattresses  and pillows, the group was able to purchase just what the center needed! Tonight, over 40 young men sleeping in this former prison will have a brand new soft mattress and they will lay their heads on new pillows, all bought with love!

Some of our girls delivering new mattresses!

And new pillows!

Members of the team also worked hard cleaning up the dorms, bathrooms and painting.

 

The team scrubbing the boys orphanage bathrooms

and cleaning walls before getting out the paint and brushes!

 If you look closely at these two photos from past Starfish trips, you will see the conditions of the shoes some of the boys are wearing, and you will notice that they often play soccer and spend their day with no shoes to wear at all.

Thanks to amazing corporate donations and the hard work of students and their parents, EVERY boy at CISNA received brand new sneakers today!!!

Now, not only will playing sports and walking around the facility be more comfortable, but they will be protected from cuts and infections that were often caused from being barefoot on concrete all day!



One of the LOHS girls fitting shoes on Moses! Thank you Sketchers!

Tomorrow our group will be traveling to remote villages near the boarder of Guatemala. They will see the circumstances that many of the children in the orphanages have come from. The team will learn a lot about Salvadoran culture in rural communities and see first hand how they live off the land.

They will be delivering rice and beans to families, giving educational talks to school children and much more!

Enjoy these other pictures from the past two days!