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NPH Mexico youth share their blessings
The high school youth at NPH Mexico practice altruism and social responsibility by supporting their surrounding communities.
Reported by Konstantin Bilozertsev
Communication Officer, NPH Mexico
December 28, 2015
“Last time we visited a local community we shared food and prepared fun games for the people. This time we brought diapers and clothing,” says Ricardo Klayen, who grew up at NPH Mexico and is currently the coordinator of the leadership program. “The help is much needed, but to see our own youth supporting other people in need is what really gives me the happiest satisfaction. That’s the level of kindness and social responsibility we aim for in educating our kids at NPH.”
When the little NPH truck arrived, it was packed with a dozen bags of donated clothes and half a dozen colorful piñatas, which our high school kids had made for the members of the little community. Now, after the piñatas are broken, the delicious insides eaten, and almost all of the clothes distributed to the people, our teenagers’ service is fulfilled. There is a certain atmosphere of calmness, which comes after an important task.
One of the boys who is sitting next to me breaks the silence and leans over to share his thoughts. “You know, I am who I am due to the support of other people at NPH. The future I can look forward to is due to the help of another person, and an organization like NPH. So I again want to be that helpful person to someone else as well. I feel good now.”
To support our youth in their desires to be a part of that cycle of support, and to educate them on what a sense for social responsibility and sharing is are the two essential principles of the NPH philosophy. The “Youth Development Program” was initiated as a part of the NPH “Global Leadership Program” which all of our homes share in order to sponsor our most committed youth.
“Our high school children have helped about 700 people through community outreach this year,” says Ricardo. “While this is a big success there is another very important goal we aim for with the Youth Development program. Recently, we have started a program especially designed to help our “Hermanos Mayores” (our older brothers and sisters) in need of educational, monetary or bureaucratic support – even long after they have left our home. It is important that while we are reaching out to the responsibility of our past that we are also starting to plant a seed of social responsibility in our kids when they are very young. We want them to see themselves as lifelong examples of what happens when people care for each other and the less fortunate. This is why trips like today are very joyful and important events.”
The dozen teenagers who helped to tend to the people with their search for diapers, balls, and toys for their children and grandchildren; pants for their aunts; or shirts for their grandfathers, once had come from similar neighborhoods. Today they came back to this undeniably common Mexican reality as outsiders, confronted with its harsh reality once again, but finally empowered to make a change. We are proud of them for not being indifferent and for sharing the blessings of compassion which changed their own lives. That is the spirit of NPH, and may it live on in their hearts long after they leave the home for their own paths.
Related Information:
• NPH Mexico
• Higher Education Program
• How Your Help Makes an Impact at NPH
Photo above: Clothing donations are distributed
Photos below: Ricardo Klayen (red shirt) and NPH Mexico’s General Administrator Assistant Hugo Ocampo hand out food donations to a family in need; two of our high school students hang up a piñata they prepared for the local community; everyone from little kids to their grandmothers enjoyed the piñatas.
