The home of Hope and The clinic of Hope

The home of Hope lies in Poro Alegre and was founded by Mary and Nils Taranger in 1958. In The home of Hope there is a pre-school for about 120 children between the ages of 2-6 years old. The children’s parents are poor and many have simple work, but they live on the subsistence minimum. Thanks to the pre-school the parents, not seldomly single mothers, get the possibility to work when the children can be in a safe environment.

For the older children, there is a possibility to be at an after-school service. There the children come before and after school. The children attend the local school in the area that is called Mario Quintana. It means a lot for the families to have their children in stimulating environments outside the slum areas where they live. In this way, the risks of them ending up in gang criminality are also prevented.

At The home of Hope there is also a crisis home that takes care of children who require emergency relocating. The social services together with The home of Hope relocates the children. There are usually around 20 in care at a time and there are different reasons for the relocations. Often it has to do with parents that are abusers and mistreat their child or that the child has been abandoned. The children then stay at the crisis home all the time until the investigations are completed. At The home of Hope we work purposefully to make the stay as short as possible for each child. We look for a possibility for the child to return to their home or if there are any relatives, the alternative for a supportive family or adoption exists. The children stay at the crisis home around the clock, but there are opportunities to stay with a different family during the weekends.

The home of Hope has been of great service and help for many children since the organization was founded.

The clinic of Hope was founded in 1998, by Mary Taranger, to take care of HIV-infected children. Today there is room for 42 children at the clinic. All the children have been placed at the clinic after a court judgment regarding health care. The children that come to the clinic suffer from, amongst other things, mental illness, hepatitis C, tuberculosis, syphilis, HIV, and cancer. The goal is to give the children affection, health care, and protection. There are nurses, caregivers, psychologists, and youth recreation leaders in the staff all there to help the children. Most of the children already have a diagnosis or are being investigated for one when they arrive at the clinic. Several of the children have been taken care of by social services in connection with their birth. Many of the children have parents that are abusers and the children that are born are not wanted. Some of the children that come to the clinic are very weak and sick, and several of them have severe abstinence after drugs that their mother abused while she was pregnant with them. The clinic has meant a lot for the children that need health care and lacks parents that can take care of them. During the years that have passed many children that have been under care at the clinic have been able to be adopted into loving, often childless, families.

All children should have the right to grow up in safety, however, many children are abandoned by their parents at birth.