ARTICLES

Two Miles South of the Border as the Seagull Flies

CASA HOGAR DE LOS NIÑOS OFFERS ORPHANS REFUGE OF FAITH

By Tracy Moran

The August sun blazes equally hot over San Diego and Tijuana, but as you cross into Mexico, the heat somehow feels more oppressive when accompanied by car exhaust and the acrid smells rising from the Tijuana River. Yet once away from the border and up the steep, rutted hill of Colonia Pedregal de Santa Julia, a soft breeze brings relief.

Located about two miles south of the border as the seagull flies, the colonia includes homes, an elementary school, a construction supply store, several markets, a parish church, and an orphanage -- Casa Hogar de los Niños. Behind the orphanage's white concrete block wall, 55 youngsters prepare to eat lunch. They giggle and chatter, until a slim, blond American woman stands at the front of the room and quiets them.

"Tranquilo," says Jody Varner, an unpaid volunteer who's lived and worked at the orphanage for the last year.

The children settle into their places along the tables in the large dining room, where a picture of the Blessed Mother adorns one wall. On the opposite wall, a hand-lettered poster lists the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Before tucking into their steaming plates of pasta, pork and beans and vegetables, everyone says grace.

A group of American college students, here for the week, eats with the children. Like Varner, they are volunteers affiliated with the Trinitarian order, whose mission is to serve those who are poor, abandoned and neglected and who have the need to deepen the Catholic faith.

Marie Quinn, a 21-year-old from Illinois Benedictine College, says she was "astounded by Tijuana's poverty." But after spending time at the orphanage, she says she realizes that while the children don't have material goods, "they're so much more at peace."

"They really are a family," she says, gazing at the youngsters clearing their lunch dishes and heading out the door.

Having that sense of family is important to these children, some of whom were abandoned by their parents or come from drug-addicted households. Though there are about a dozen orphanages in Tijuana, more are needed, says Augustinian Father Steven Ochoa, whose order supports another orphanage, Hogar Infantil la Gloria.

"The number of orphanages is a drop in the bucket," he says. "The need is great for a bigger foster home for teenage girls and also for orphanages that deal with high school kids."

The Augustinian orphanage houses 48 children, from infants to age 13. "We receive all of our kids through the Mexican family welfare agency," Father Ochoa says. As at other orphanages, some of the children are truly orphans, while others have been taken from their family because of abusive situations or are sent by parents unable to care for them.

"We're offering the first stable environment they've had," says Father Ochoa, who worked as a missionary in northern Peru. He likens the poverty he experienced there to that which he sees in Tijuana, "even though Tijuana is going through its own mini-economic boom."

Still, the majority of financial support for the orphanages comes from Americans, though Father Ochoa is "hopeful of extending the support structure more on the Mexican side."

Tracy Stickel, whose Stickel Christian Foundation supports another Tijuana orphanage called Casa de la Esperanza, sees even the American support waning. "The attitude is, 'What about our own kids? Our own towns?'" But, she adds, once people hear about the great need in Tijuana and realize how far their money goes, they're more willing to donate.

"I tell people they get a lot of bang for their buck," Stickel says, adding, "This is God's work and it gets done."

At Casa Hogar de los Niños, the children range in age from seven months to 24 years, says Pilar Ralphs, whose husband, Tony, founded Casa Hogar 24 years ago. He was answering a "call from God," says Ralphs, a convert who spent time working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta before he began taking in Tijuana's abandoned and orphaned children.

Today, the Ralphs live in Bonita, but spend time at the orphanage, where some children come as infants, while others are placed by the government in a foster care-type program. As long as they remain in school they can stay at the orphanage, Pilar explains.

"This is the first generation that will graduate from university," she says. "That's a dream come true."

As she speaks, several women and older girls clean up the kitchen following lunch, while another teen heads to the laundry room to load five commercial washing machines. Clean clothes are looped through a chain link fence out back, where they dry quickly in the summer sun. Nearby, two boys repair some playground equipment.

The boys and girls live in separate dorms. Until leaving at the end of September, Varner lived in a small room up a couple flights of stairs, past a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. If someone else takes on the position of resident volunteer -- they are seeking someone to fill the post -- that person will live in this room that looks north to San Diego glittering in the distance.

"It's amazing to think of all the blessings and riches there," says Varner, "and then to be here. The best part of it is there are a lot of people (in the U.S.) who come down here to help out and share what they have."

Varner, a 39-year-old lobbyist from Washington, D.C., who plans to remain in the San Diego area, has seen a number of changes during her year at the orphanage -- in herself and in the children she helps care for.

"When you live this way," she says, "you get connected to your faith. You see the fruits of your actions on a daily basis." She's also seen a spiritual renewal take hold among the youngsters. "Feeding, bathing and clothing the children is taxing on the women (who work at the orphanage)," Varner says. "They don't have time for catechetics." Fortunately, two groups of volunteers -- one from Santa Ana and another from the archdiocese of Tijuana -- come to teach the children about the Catholic faith.

A dozen children were being prepared to receive their First Holy Communion in September. Additionally, the young adult group at the Mission San Diego de Alcala spends time at Casa Hogar de los Niños the third Saturday of each month. Each young adult has spiritually adopted an orphanage resident or staff member, praying daily for that person. Ignacio Romo, director of social justice and outreach for the Mission Young Adults, says some of the children "are really connected with the young adults that visit."

The spiritual help, says Varner, enables the children to heal "the scars from being abandoned, being abused."

"With God's love," she adds, "and with learning that there are people from the Catholic Church who want to love them, a tremendous amount of healing occurs -- we can let them know how much God loves them."

Beyond spiritual growth, Casa Hogar's facilities have improved over time as well. Stickel is impressed with the changes she's seen at Casa Hogar.

"They're so lucky to have Jody," Stickel says, adding that while the kids are "very well taken care of," a number of building projects needed completion.

"Where there was broken cement, it's now poured cement," she says, "and the shower used to dribble cold water." That changed through the generosity of a Mexican man who knew the owner of Mexico's gas company and arranged for the orphanage to receive gas at no cost to them, says Varner.

The showers now have hot and cold water, and the bathrooms have been tiled. Also, a chapel will soon be built on the orphanage grounds. But the needs are still great. For example, Casa de la Esperanza, which is supported by Presbyterian churches and receives aid from SDG&E among other corporate donors, boasts a fleet of vehicles, while Casa Hogar has two donated cars that sometimes don't run. But Varner manages to get the children to a weekly education program across town where they talk about issues important to their age group.

"It's a beautiful resource," Varner says. "Knowledge and education can break them of these cycles, can help children who don't have a true family to learn what a true family is like and how to get that for themselves."

Varner also was able to get $40,000 worth of donated pharmaceuticals across the border, with the help of a nun, though typically transporting such items into Tijuana is difficult. Father Ochoa, for example, says it's easier to buy construction materials in Mexico, where they cost more, than to try and bring supplies from the U.S.

But those working with the children ultimately overcome these and myriad other challenges that make up daily life in the Tijuana orphanages.

"One of the things I learned with Mother Teresa," says Tony Ralphs, "if it's God's work, it'll be done."