“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:11
The story of many young women …
Her father drank. When he came back to the dirty, cramped room, he’d get angry, hitting anything in sight. It was rare when she didn’t have bruises or bumps on her body, even though she did everything possible to stay away from her raging father.
She couldn’t wait to get away, to go anywhere other than here.
So when she saw a cute young man on the corner smiling at her, she couldn’t resist talking to him. When he asked her to a party, she couldn’t resist going. When he bought her a new dress for the next party, she couldn’t resist being his date. When he drugged her drink and threw her into his car, she couldn’t resist him.
When he hunted her, tempted her, and coerced her into prostitution, she couldn’t resist, fearing for her life.<
The sex trade in Colombia
The sex trade is huge in Colombia, and girls are “trafficked” into it every single day. Prostitution is legal for those eighteen and older, but many, many young women are NOT eighteen and still practice the “oldest profession in the world.” The sex industry goes hand-in-hand with drug trafficking, making for a seedy, scary world where young women are always at risk.
While a few young men are trapped into the sex trade – or sometimes into forced labor – women make up the vast majority of victims. Those who are poorly educated and with low incomes are most at risk, and 80% of victims of human trafficking fall into that group. Immigrants, often Venezuelan, are targeted.
When women live in poverty with no resources and no support, they fall prey to violence, drugs, and prostitution.
Are these young women doomed to lives of despair?
NO!
Not when Casa de Sueños exists to give them a Helping Hand.
The Helping Hand program
Casa de Sueños is Medellin’s premier nonprofit for young children and abused young women.
Two programs established at Casa de Sueños have received international acclaim from the prestigious Konecta Foundation. The first is a program called “Childhood,” for poor children, ages six to twelve. The second, “Helping Hand,” is a program designed specifically for abused young women who want to change their lives for the better.
How do these young women come to Casa de Sueños?
She’s scared. Alone. Doesn’t know where to turn. How will she ever get out?
Casa de Sueños understands the problem of abused young women, trapped in a situation they can’t control. That’s why we have Luisa, a dedicated staff member who looks for these girls who want help.
Luisa searches the public institutions set up for people who want to change their lives. She goes to other foundations and schools, ready to help the sad and desperate young women who truly desire help. These girls are often victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, or drug addiction. Luisa offers them a “Helping Hand,” the award-winning program that feeds them, teaches them, supports them, and nurtures them.
“Is this too good to be true? Can I trust this place?”
Luisa helps the young woman to trust in Casa de Sueños, this award-winning nonprofit, a premier organization in Medellin, that has been around for a decade, helping hundreds and hundreds of poor children and abused young women.
The Helping Hand program at Casa de Sueños
“They were hungry and thirsty.
Their souls fainted within them.”
– Psalms 107:5
She had been hungry so long she didn’t remember ever being full.
It was hard to concentrate on anything when her stomach hurt.
One of the first things Casa de Sueños does to help the women who are accepted into the program is to deal the basic essentials of daily life, like housing and food.
Since safe housing is a huge issue, the team at Casa de Sueños visits each young woman’s home, assessing her needs. If necessary, our foundation helps these young women find a safe and affordable place to stay, even contributing to the rent until the girls can complete the Helping Hand program and find a job.
Hunger is also a detriment to learning, laughing, and life in general, so Casa de Sueños feeds these young women two meals a day.
With their basic, human needs met, Casa de Sueños is able to focus on providing them an education.
Criteria and Coursework
To be accepted into the Helping Hand program at Casa de Sueños, the young women must be committed to change. Each must be between sixteen and twenty-two years of age. None may be pregnant. All must agree to take birth control.
It’s a two-year program, so these young women commit to focusing their energies on healing themselves, attaining skills, and learning how to cope independently.
The Helping Hand program provides these girls with valuable education, empowering them to find a legitimate job that will sustain them as they move into adulthood.
A whopping 96% of the young women participating in the Helping Hand program graduate, and more than 90% of those quickly find employment. Casa de Sue>ños has been a nonprofit for more than ten years. In that time, hundreds of girls have found jobs, and now many of our girls work at the same businesses because employers WANT to hire our young women.
Courses in the Helping Hand Program
Economy course
Young women coming from a life of poverty have never learned how to handle money. The Economy course at Casa de Sueños teaches them personal finance and skills like maintaining a bank account, figuring a budget, and understanding income and expenses.
Workforce course
The workforce course includes learning – and practicing – aspects of the business world. In this course, the young women learn basic business skills, including how to dress appropriately for the world of work.
They also learn how to craft a resume, and they practice pretend job interviews.
All the students master computer skills and learn basic software programs so that they have the necessary skills for job success.
Emotional Awareness course
Many of the young women in the Helping Hand program at Casa de Sueños have suffered emotional trauma. They may lack self-confidence, have low self-esteem, and often feel shame, guilt, or anger. Sometimes they don’t know how to handle their feelings, and few of them know constructive ways of dealing with conflict.
The Emotional Awareness course, one segment of the Helping Hand curriculum, helps these young women deal with their emotions and the emotions of those around them.
A psychologist and a social worker are on duty every day to provide counseling.
General Activities
Casa de Sueños recognizes that a satisfying life should also include enjoyment and recreation.
The young women in the Helping Hand program also get a course that helps them develop other skills by practicing arts and crafts. A favorite class teaches them the art of macrame, giving them a physical outlet for their energy as well as pride in finishing a project.
Spiritual Wellbeing course
“Isn’t there more to living than working and surviving?
Will the past always haunt me?
Why do I still feel sad sometimes?”
It’s not enough to be fed and housed. It’s not enough to have skills and knowledge.
Casa de Sueños believe that faith in God is the sustenance that a soul truly needs.
Each young woman in the Helping Hand program learns about God, Jesus, his son, and the power of faith. They not only learn about Christian principles, but they see a Christian community in action. We serve others, and each member of our staff truly loves the children and young women.
The girls here find friendship. They laugh while they’re learning. They feel love while they’re living.
That is something many have never felt before.
Won’t you help us continue the Helping Hand program?
“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods
and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
– 1 John 3:17-18
Casa de Sueños is a nonprofit foundation. We exist ONLY on donations from caring, compassionate, generous people who believe that God wants us, his children, to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Donate to the Helping Hand program here.