Regional Director’s Message

Dear Friend,

Happy 2016! I hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas season.

There are several holiday movies and shows that never get old for me. I really enjoy Planes, Trains and Automobiles, although that is closer to a Thanksgiving movie than a Christmas movie. I’m also a real sucker for It’s a Wonderful Life (IWL). Both of these movies I have seen easily a couple of dozen times.

Usually, I stumble across one of those holiday movies or shows somewhere in the middle of its TV broadcast. Rarely do I get a chance to see it from start to finish. The day after this past Christmas, I sat down and made a point of watching IWL from opening to closing credits.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the IWL plot, it’s about an upstanding family man and a pillar of the community (George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart) who, time and again, sacrifices his own financial and emotional well-being so that others in his family and his community can be successful. On Christmas Eve, George experiences a particularly challenging financial setback that could bankrupt him and put him in jail. In the throes of desperation, he wishes that he had never been born. His guardian angel grants him that wish with the caveat that George gets to see what his community and his loved ones would have been like without him. The world without George Bailey turns out to be none too pretty, and George ultimately (and successfully) begs to be given his life back.

Last November, I directed a trip of 29 donors to our NPH home in El Salvador. Olegario Campos is the only National Director that NPH El Salvador has ever known. Olegario grew up as a pequeño in our NPH Mexico home and was tapped by Father Wasson to start NPH El Salvador 17 years ago. He built NPH El Salvador from the ground up, and he currently has that operation running like a top. What would NPH El Salvador be like if Olegario had never been born? Check out the picture to the right that was taken during that recent trip to NPH El Salvador. You would never know from the looks of him that the happy, healthy boy (we’ll call him Geovanny, but that’s not his real name) on my right was mistreated and abandoned by his alcoholic parents before being placed at NPH El Salvador. What would Geovanny’s life be like without Olegario? Would he be as happy, well fed, well educated, and well cared for as he is today? Or, would he be living by his wits on the streets…or worse?

What about Father William Wasson, the founder of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos? It’s impossible to imagine there being an NPH if he had never been born. What would the impact have been on Olegario, Geovanny, and the other 20,000 children who have lived in an NPH home if it weren’t for Father Wasson?

And what about you? What if, heaven forbid, you were never born? You are the best person to answer that question as it pertains to your own life. I’m thinking more in terms of the plural you, as in all you NPH USA donors never being born? Without our donors, there would have been a Father Wasson, but there would not have been an NPH. Governments in the countries where we operate our homes are happy to send us children to care for, but they are unable/unwilling to give us the funds to do it. We depend entirely on the generosity of good folks like you for every dollar, peso, etc. that we expend to provide the food, clothing, education, medical care and loving structure that kids like Geovanny need in order to thrive.

All of the preceding is a very long-winded way for me to say thank you very much for your charitable support and to tell you how much your support means to children like Geovanny. We certainly could not do what we do without you. Thank you for making the pequeños of NPH a part of your wonderful life.

All the best,

Chuck Allworth
Midwest Region Director