Los Niños Del Capitan - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Los Niños del Capitan is a daycare for children ages 18 months through five-years-old. It was created for single parents in extreme poverty as a safe place to be taken care of while parents work. It was established in 2001 by “abuelita” or grandmother, Herminia Losada, and is a model Mexican nonprofit currently directed by Josefina Martinez Solis. Parent(s) are charged $600 pesos a month (approximately $50 U.S. dollars). The actual cost of caring for each child is $2000 pesos a month ($166 U.S.). If parents cannot pay the fee, they are asked to pay what they can and it is agreed that once the child goes to public school, the parent will continue to pay what is owed to the daycare. The daycare is extremely flexible with the payment, as they believe it is most important for the child to be taken care of, fed nutritious meals, clothed and have shoes to wear. They also make efforts to take care of the children’s medical, psychological and dental needs.  All services provided are donated by medical professionals.  


A year ago this daycare accommodated 150 children daily, but during the past six months the number of children had to be reduced to 120 because of lack of funding from charity contributions.  Los Niños del Capitan is a nonprofit organization funded only through donations, fundraising, and parent contributions.

The area of Tierra y Libertad where the children live,

about 15 minutes from downtown Cabo San Lucas.

Ideally there are 23-28 employees to take care of the children but staff has been cut to 18, some of which are volunteers. One woman does all the cooking, kitchen cleanup, and serving two meals a day (breakfast and lunch) with a snack in the afternoon.

I was asked to visit around 3:30 p.m., the time the children begin to be picked up. The daycare opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. Many children are there for the entire 12 hours. On a tour of their facility there was one “teacher/caretaker” in each of the four rooms (18 months-2 years, age 3, age 4 and 5). 

The daycare is located on the north section of Cabo San Lucas. High cement walls and razor wire surrounds the daycare with metal barred security gates. An area just inside the first gate is where the parent leaves the child and picks them up. Children are ushered through another locked security gate to meet their parent when picked up. The preschool is very clean and sparse. The 

rooms where the children stay are small, just big enough for their small tables and chairs and basic supplies (sleeping mats, art supplies, etc.).

Their playground consists of an area covered with sand with an old dilapidated swing set contraption shaded by a corrugated metal roof.  The director explained how the repairman is constantly attempting to repair the structure.  Of the four swings, only two were usable and the rest of the structure was rickety. Approximately one-fourth of the other part of sand playground area was covered with a huge mound of garbage bags full of recyclable materials (plastic, cans, etc.) and about 35 sinks. 

The recycling people come once a month to pick it up. The director was proud of the fact that last month they made $20 U.S. selling the recyclables. The sinks are a donation from a hotel renovation. They are attempting to sell the sinks for revenue but there is never enough time or resources to make that happen. The people who live in the area would either not consider buying a used sink or they live in the barrios (impoverished area close by where homes are made of tin and cardboard) and they can’t afford a sink or running water.

The other part of the playground courtyard has a cement floor and one small playhouse in the middle, which houses about eight broken down plastic trikes and riding toys.

 The daycare has no Facebook page or official website, other than a simple page that another organization has set up for them.  I talked to Josefina about creating a Facebook page, as it would be an easy and cost effective way to keep people updated as to what their needs are and what type of projects need to get done.  She was delighted to know that someone might be able to do that but was hesitant about how to maintain it.  I hope to get that set up and show her how to work with it the next time I visit Cabo San Lucas.  

Supplies

baby wipes

30 mats for the floor that they take naps on
Exterior and interior paint (white and chocolate brown most important, but any other color is fine) 

Copier paper
Art supplies
Glue
Tape
Small backpacks

Equipment

Playground equipment (current equipment is not very sturdy, two out of four swings don’t work)
Tike bikes and riding toys
Playground balls

Food items
Any kind of basic food (flour, oil, vegetables, beans, meat, fruit, yogurt, milk, breakfast cereals, margarine, bread, cheese, crackers, etc.)

Other needs

Facebook page
Pediatrician services
Counseling services
Dental services
People to repair and paint
People to help sponsor/provide scholarship for a child to help pay the actual cost of operating the daycare

Donations 

If anyone is traveling to Cabo San Lucas, there is a Costco, Sam's Club and Walmart located close by.  It is easy to pick up a few cases of supplies and drop them off at the daycare.  

Contact information:

Josefina Martinez Solis, Director

Mañana 89, Lote 05,

Col. Mesa Colorada, 2da. Etapa

Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S.

Phone:  173-38-07

Email:  losninosdelcapitan@hotmail.com

If you would like to make monetary donations, contact me directly and I will give you the directions of how to do that.  I hope that on your next visit to Cabo San Lucas you will take the time to help provide some of the above supplies to support a wonderful small organization who is making sure the children are not going hungry and are cared for.  

DreamMissions - We can all help make a difference in a child's life

 
 

Casa Hogar - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

DreamMissions

Casa Hogar - Cabo San Lucas

Boys' Orphanage (Age 7-16)

Marlene Bennett, LMHC

April 2012

At the end of a dirt road, perched on a small hill in the desert at the southern edge of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, sits an austere building. The area around the building is desert, sand, and old barbed wire fencing.  It is the home for 32 boys from the ages of 7 to 16.  A dirt and sand field nearby is used for a soccer field.  Most of these boys have been removed from their parents because of extreme abuse and neglect.  They will never see their parents again.  Two of the boys are twin brothers who live here because their mother is not physically able to care for them. 

I met with Chris Mills, the director of the facility, and Omar Venegas, the administrator.  Even though the Mexican Government mandated the boys to live in this facility, the only funding the orphanage receives is from donations.  The land was acquired and the building began in 1990.  It sat partially unfinished for many years before a member of the local Rotary Club club picked the project back up and got the construction started again in 2005.  It was finished in 2007. 

The building consists of a kitchen and dining room, central living area with tables for doing homework, ping pong table and a couple of couches.  The boys are divided between two dormitory sleeping areas with bunk beds, with the young boys in one and the boys older than 12 in the other.  There is a central "closet" area where the community clothing is stored (school pants, white shirts for school, and assortment of casual clothing.  Each boy has two drawers in a dresser that sits between the bunk beds for their personal clothing.  At the end of the building are two small offices for the staff and a locked computer room that is used only with supervision.  The computers are about 1995 vintage.  A few are hooked up to the internet and the others are used for word processing and school work. 

On the day I visited Casa Hogar, most of the boys were in school. About 12 were watching volunteers from town give a musical presentation. 

I explained DreamMissions to both Chris Mills, the director and Omar Venegas, the administrator, and explained how we would like to support the orphanage with donations (supplies and services) from people who would be in the area vacationing.  He was very receptive and also very grateful for any items and scholarship assistance so more boys are able to attend a private school.  Presently, the two boys with the best grades are attending a private school from a supporting organization.  He explained that private school would almost always insure the boys’ success in life.  Regular tuition is $200 u.s. but if $100 is paid for tuition each month, they will match that amount.  Chris was extremely grateful that the  funding of the orphanage has been adequate for most needs.  Of course “adequate” by their standards is much different than how we would view it. 

Two of the local resorts have been sponsoring a program to bring a few of the older boys into each resort once a month where they observe and participate in learning work skills.  If the boys successfully continue with their mentoring, there is a good chance they will be hired by the resort when they are old enough.  Another resource is called the Padrino Program, where volunteer adults connect with the boys in a “godparent” relationship. 

When I asked Chris and Omar about behavior problems they both stated that violent and destructive behaviors were one of their biggest problems.  The boys are in the orphanage because of having gone through severe abuse and/or neglect from parents and there hasn’t been any options to help the boys deal with their intense feelings that get triggered.  Currently, a psychologist has just begun to visit with the boys a few hours a week to get to know them, but there isn’t any help available for trauma therapy.  The staff attempted to get the psychologist to meet with me to talk about trauma therapy but his schedule didn’t accommodate a connection before I left the area.  Hopefully I will be able to return soon and have more time to either teach him some of the skills needed or develop a brief therapy trauma approach.  Without addressing the trauma issues, the boys begin to act out at around 14-years of age.  If behaviors aren’t modified, they are expelled from the orphanage, then the cycle of drugs, abuse, violence and prostitution repeat itself.

There are plans to develop a program to help the boys transition from late teenage years to age 20 or 21.  The director asked for my assistance to peruse a proposal document in the new few weeks to provide feedback.  They hope to get funding to build a separate building to house the older boys on the back of their property, giving them time to transition into adulthood, learn more living skills and acquire vocational skills and education. 

I look forward to developing a continued relationship with the caring and compassionate staff at Casa Hogar in Cabo San Lucas.  If you are planning a trip there, feel free to connect with me if you'd like to take supplies or provide financial assistance. 

Projects that they have coming up are:

remodel bathrooms

acquire and install commercial washing machines

resurface soccer field (original artificial turf is in shreds)

Items needed for supplies:

white polo shirts for school

dark slacks for school

backpacks

any type of school supplies such as notebooks, notebook paper, pencils, pens, spiral notebooks, etc.

new shoes

Both Casa Hogar and Los Ninos del Capitan explained how nothing goes unused.  If they can’t use donated items at their facility, they will pass it along to other places and people who can.  We can make a difference in a child's life.