Thank You!

Dear Hogar Project Donors,

We are grateful for your support in helping change lives this past summer in El Salvador. It was a very special experience for us, and without your support it wouldn’t have been possible. The kids rely on you and your generosity. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of very special children!

Projects that you made possible:

Through your help, we were able to improve the medical clinic. We built five partitions that are being used in the clinic to provide a quieter and cozier stay to kids that are sick. Also, we built a quarantine room that is used by the clinic to prevent outbreaks in the Hogar. A few years ago, the swine flu created many problems for the Hogar medical staff. The doctors needed more resources to stop the spreading of the swine flu. This new room will help the medical staff better control contagious outbreaks and keep the kids healthier.

Three days a week we taught an afternoon class to the kids. They loved it! We did crafts and art projects, played games, learned ways to improve behavior and learned about other cultures. The kids looked forward to this and loved learning.

We taught English classes to the workers of the Hogar. Through this class, workers were able to develop study plans to help them learn English through their studies. We would meet once a week for one hour teaching workers vocabulary, sentence structures, verbs and whatever other questions they had. We taught them ways to continue their English studies without the need of a teacher.

We helped other volunteers build a sensory garden for the physical therapists to use with the kids. The sensory garden is full of fun activities for the physical therapists to use while doing therapy with the kids.

We also had fun painting all of the kid's rooms to create a positive visual stimulation. The kids got really involved and told us what they would like painted in their rooms. The girls mainly wanted butterflies, flowers and princesses. The boys mainly wanted race cars and sports. The kids were so happy to have a fun painted room rather than just a plain white room.

Last but not least, we were able to do some graphic design work for the Tropicana Band who puts on concerts to raise money for the Hogar.

Thank you for your support! It has greatly improved the children’s lives and brought miracles to the Hogar. The Hogar Staff is very thankful for what you do and so are we! We enjoyed our time at the Hogar and miss it greatly. We created such wonderful and sweet bonds with the children at the Hogar and miss them dearly. We are so grateful that we were able to help the children and for all of the love they shared with us. Thank You!

Sincerely,

Bridgette and Travis Hall

Graphic Design Logo for the Foundation

The Foundation needed me (Bridgette) to design a logo for the musical group "Tropicana" who has concerts to raise money for the Hogar del Nino Orphanage.

I designed 6 different logos and this is the one they picked.

I then created 3 different color studies for the logo. Still waiting to hear which one they will choose. Tropicana is having a concert May 31st where my logo will be shown.

red, orange, yellow:

turquoise, orange, green:

red, blue, yellow, green:

Sensory Garden

A group of volunteers from Florida came for 2 weeks and we helped them build this sensory garden the kids will use doing physical therapy.

we painted rocks and laid them out in a path we made.

telephone the kids can talk/hear through.

this is made for the kids to feel and walk on the different textured tiles.

this is for the kids to hit each pole to hear a different sound.

Murals

Animals:

Beach scene:

Sun, flowers, butterflies:

Racecar:

Afternoon School Class

Table Manners:

We taught the kids about table manners.

Object lesson: We gave each of the kids each a graham cracker and a napkin. We taught them to say please to receive the graham cracker and then to say thank you when we gave them one. We taught them to chew with their mouth closed and then to wipe your mouth and hands after they were finished eating.

And then of course, we drew a picture of the manners and they colored.

Community Living:

We taught the kids about the community they are a part of at the Hogar. We taught them about all the people that are in their community and how we should all work together.

Kids participating in class.

We then made a map of the Hogar and explained about all of the people that make up the community.

They then colored maps of the Hogar

Edwin's is quite the arteest!

Food Pyramid:

We taught the kids about health and the food pyramid.

They then made pictures of some of their favorite foods and put it on the correct spot of the chart.

Noche Especial!

First Noche Especial:
We had our first Noche Especial with Geovanny, Efrain, and Alonso. We brought them up to our casita and played Candyland (which is now Geovanny's new favorite game), ate chocolates, laughed a lot, and had a lot of fun! We really enjoy Noche Especial because we are able to give individualized attention to the ninos that come to our casita.



Candyland!



Geovanny hoping so bad that he gets the card he needs to win



Geovanny won!



Efrain and his cool headband



Alonso and his cool headband


Second Noche Especial:
We had our second Noche Espial with Ana, Walter and Nahum. (It was Ana's and Walter's first time ever doing Noche Especial so they were especially excited to come!) We played Uno, had chocolates, built REALLY tall castles out of Jenga blocks and then watched them fall (Ana would laugh very hard when the castle would fall), made bracelets, and listened to Ana sing her famous "Papaya" song. It was a lot of fun and we loved laughing and spending time with the ninos!




We made cards for Ana, Nahum and Walter that had chocolates, a lei to put on when they got to our casita, and a cup for some Coke.



The chocolates are very delicious!



The gang has arrived!