Friends of the Orphans

Our Stories: Supporters

Doug DeBen
May 3, 2012

I’m Doug DeBen to most and Papa Noel to a very few, wonderful young people.

Click here to see more pictures of Doug and the kids on our blog!

I arrived at the former NPH home in Lunahuana [about 20 miles up river from their current location] just a few evenings after Christmas, 2010. This was my first of two NPH home visits so far. So there I was - a large, white, blonde gringo with a beard and a bag of toys (soccer balls, frisbees, etc). One of the smaller pequenos looked up at me and yelled, “Papa Noel!!” and that small group of Hermanos immediately grasped the connection and we all had a good laugh. What a fun moment!

During my brief visit I met some of the volunteers and got a glimpse of how things worked. The general atmosphere of the place was amazing. “Sharing of Work and Responsibility”, part of the NPH philosophy, becomes immediately apparent when you see everybody spring into action to get things done. Meal times, cleanup and other chores are all taken care of like clockwork.

I had learned about NPH through Stephen and Donna Egge. Dr. Egge invited me to an event at his house a few years ago. Merlin, a former Pequeno, spoke at that event about his experience growing up with NPH and his plan to return to Honduras as a Medical Doctor [Mission Accomplished!]. I was immediately impressed with the NPH model and by Merlin. I read more about the organization and attended some Friends of the Orphans events. I was touched by the many stories of success, struggles, testimonials and by the integrity of everyone associated with NPH/Friends of the Orphans. All of these things had prompted my first visit.

I recently returned to NPH Peru, just after last Christmas, 2011, to their new location in Canete. On this visit I planned for more time with the kids. I had sponsored a seven year old named Javier and was looking forward to meeting him.

The Friends of the Orphans folks recommended a good way to initiate contact and then keep in touch with a child you are sponsoring; give them a photo album, partially filled with pictures. You then send photo-updates and letters after that, so the child can add photos to your/their album. In my initial album I included about 60 photos of what I thought a seven year old kid would like - grizzly bears in Alaska, animals and ruins from Central and South America and other random pictures of me, my home, etc. I wasn’t sure if he would like it but it was a huge hit! All the kids in his age group wanted to see the pictures. Actually, I think if the album were full of pictures of anything from living room furniture to dinosaurs, they would have loved it. The time with Javier and his Hermanos was full of priceless moments.

Then there was Luz Maria, or Maria Luz, depending on who you ask. I later found out her actual name is Maria Luz, but I prefer Luz Maria and so did most of the child care workers. She was about 18 months old (best guess, based on dental development). She had been abandoned and passed from neighbor to neighbor ‘till she ended up at NPH. She had been at NPH Peru for just a few weeks when I arrived. She was unable to walk or talk and couldn’t even stand on her own without support. When she first saw me she was scared to death! She’d never seen a large, pale gringo and I think she wondered if I was even human! After recovering from her initial shock we became friends. She clearly wanted help learning to walk, so I obliged.

On the second day I saw her we had a moment that I’ll remember forever. I walked into the room and she was sitting in a high chair. She reached out to me in a way that went straight through to my heart. Without a word spoken it was like we had a complete conversation with only a single glance...

“Hey, we’ve got lots of work to do. You need to keep helping me work on this whole gravity versus balance and leg strength thing - I think it’s called walking”, she said.
“Okay”, I said.
“And you know you’ll never forget me and you will help me and my hermanos won’t you?”
“Yeah”, I said.
“And you’ll tell others about us, right?”
“Already have and I’ll continue that habit”, I said.
“Do you need a pen to write this down? Are you getting all of this?!?!”
“No pen, got it all”, I said.
“And remember, we’ll be helping you too”.
“You already have”, I said.
“Now get me outta this chair! We’ve got more work to do in making me mobile!!”
“Sounds good, Luz!”.

So the next few days were spent alternating between Javier’s group and Luz’s group, with some very memorable visits with all the other groups. One of the most memorable was Javiers sister, Teresa. She has a smile that could change the world, if only we could figure out how to harness the power of a smile.

I visited the home for 4 days at the beginning of my trip, and 1 day at the end of my trip (with a quick 5-6 day trip to Cajamarca and Tarapoto in between; tourist stuff). When I returned for that final day, Luz Maria was able to take 5-6 wobbly steps on her own. The Tia’s and Tio’s had obviously kept working with Luz while I was off taking pictures.

Several weeks before my recent trip I had asked Alfredo, the Director of NPH Peru, if there was anything in particular he’d like me to bring for the kids. Socks and underwear for 101 pequenos, aged 2-20, was his reply. I was hoping for something more simple, maybe soccer balls and frisbee’s, like I had brought the previous year. I’m a single guy with no kids. I’d never bought underwear for a child in my life and had no idea where to start. That much underwear wouldn’t exactly fit in the overhead compartment during my flight. And shopping for that in the US, then shipping it to Peru, would’ve been cost prohibitive.

I have a close friend in Lima, Veronica, a travel agent whom I met about 12 years ago on my first trip to Machu Picchu. I asked if she could help me with the socks and underwear when I got to Lima. She knew exactly where to go. Veronica and her sister, Raquel, both took me to a place in Lima where stores that sell clothes, buy their clothes. We spent most of a day filling a very large bag (two “Papa Noel’s” could have fit in this bag!) with more socks and underwear than I’d ever seen in one place. I told Veronica and Raquel that I’d like the pequenos to get the best quality brands and materials. They went through every pair and piece, making sure there were no defects. They were happy to help out for the cause and I was very grateful for their help.

Ultimately, my reason for writing this is simply to portray just how rewarding a visit to one of our NPH homes can be. You don’t need friends in any of the nine countries where NPH homes are thriving, you’ve already got friends there. It was fun to reach out to my Peruvian friends for help with the socks and underwear but simply showing up and seeing how the NPH homes are run is impressive and worthwhile in and of itself.

“Unconditional Love and Security and the Sharing of Work and Responsibility”. It’s the philosophy which guides the raising of these wonderful little brothers and sisters. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Miguel Venegas, Executive Director of NPH International. I attended the “Faces of Hope” events in Seattle and Tacoma. Miguel was a featured speaker at both of these events. Miguel was raised in NPH Mexico. Spending a bit of time with him confirmed, once again, the tremendous value of what we are helping to do with NPH. His words and insights helped me learn even more about NPH. Miguel was pretty busy talking with the attendees of these events.

When he wasn’t talking with people he was helping to clear the tables. Yeah. When’s the last time you’ve seen the Executive Director of ANY organization helping the waiters and dishwashers clean up after an event. I guess that whole “Sharing of Work and Responsibility” thing never really goes away. Once a Pequeno, always a pequeno.

If you’ve never visited one of our NPH homes I have to warn you. Wonderful and touching interactions with the many Pequenos are simply impossible to avoid. So if you prefer a more grouchy and emotionally detached travel plan, avoid the NPH homes.

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