Please note: Los Pequeñitos de OSSO has since been renamed to Hogar de Ángeles.
LOS PEQUEÑITOS DE OSSO (CASAS MILAGROS & ALEGRIA)
Location: Home
Los Pequeñitos de OSSO which means OSSO’s Little Ones is the only orphanage actually owned by OSSO. We call it OSSO for short. It’s currently the home of 21 children although some of the “children” range to 28 years old. Because most of the residents here have severe disabilities, they live their entire lives here. This is the main site that we work at in Cuenca and we live here too!
There are currently 2 casas (houses) at OSSO: Casa Alegría (House of Joy) and Casa Milagros (House of Miracles). Casa Milagros is downstairs and is a mix of older children with special needs and one younger child that goes to school each day. Casa Alegria has younger children and some older children. Each casa has six bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen/dining area. Here at OSSO we have a large outdoor space to play soccer, go on walks around the orphanage and a balcony where the kids in Casa Alegría like to hang out. We also have a room called Sala Girasol (The Sunflower Room) where we do activities when it’s raining, have movie nights and other activities.
Remember that almost every activity can be modified for wheelchair users. Just being with them, singing to them, reading to them and hold their hand can make a difference.
What your journal entry may read like after a shift here: Dear Diary, This morning, I also helped do physical therapy with some of the kids. I brought the binder down from the volunteer house and I worked with Little B on his sign language. He’s doing really well. It’s nice to spend one-on-one time with the kids doing therapies though. We had some activity time so we painted trees with dot paints outside. Lunch came faster than normal I feel like and we brought them back upstairs and feed them soup and juice. After that we headed back up to the volunteer house and ate lunch.
This afternoon, it was raining pretty hard, so we watched a movie. I know the boys have seen Thor a thousand times but they still love it and get so excited every time! Then we helped feed everyone dinner (some of the residents have severe disabilities and need our help spoon feeding them). Then it was already time for bed! Sometimes I can’t believe how fast the days go by, time really does fly when you’re having fun!
