Healthy Minds and Bodies
50% of Guatemalan children are chronically malnourished. Feeding the Semillas de Amor kids nutritious meals is a priority. We not only build strong bodies but strong minds. Our kids do not go to bed or school hungry. Our on-site vegetable garden and orchard, fertilized by our worm-composted fertilizer, provides lots of fresh organic vegetables and fruits for our kids. Our free-range laying hens provide fresh, nutritious eggs. A balanced diet, three meals a day, and two snacks, is a daily diet for the kids. Our children rarely eat candy, or sugary desserts, thus their excellent teeth. Learning is much easier after a healthy breakfast.
The amount of time children spend in institutional care may affect how their brains develop. Children make tremendous advances in cognitive functioning once they reach their adoptive families, but the impact of early deprivation on their brains’ development is difficult to reverse completely. Our children will never reach adoptive families so it is important to us that we re-create a family atmosphere for them. We want our kids to succeed in life. We don’t want our children to fail because they were not permitted to have a family and suffered developmental delays.
Semillas de Amor works in partnership with psychologists. This is why Whole Child Development is important to Semillas de Amor. We are working with our child so they don’t suffer from delays or the inability to build relationships. We want their entire brain to function as any other child would, that has a family. We want our kids to trust and build relationships with their peers and loved ones. In other words we want our children to be whole.
Healthy food, good health care, music, art, physical education, quality academics, canine therapy is essential for our children because they began life in difficult situations. Some of our children suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Others neglect. Some of this abuse started while they were still in the womb. Many birth mothers suffered from malnutrition and passed that on to their children.
We work diligently to help our kids overcome any obstacles so they may thrive academically, emotionally and physically.
The amount of time children spend in institutional care may affect how their brains develop. Children make tremendous advances in cognitive functioning once they reach their adoptive families, but the impact of early deprivation on their brains’ development is difficult to reverse completely. Our children will never reach adoptive families so it is important to us that we re-create a family atmosphere for them. We want our kids to succeed in life. We don’t want our children to fail because they were not permitted to have a family and suffered developmental delays.
Semillas de Amor works in partnership with psychologists. This is why Whole Child Development is important to Semillas de Amor. We are working with our child so they don’t suffer from delays or the inability to build relationships. We want their entire brain to function as any other child would, that has a family. We want our kids to trust and build relationships with their peers and loved ones. In other words we want our children to be whole.
Healthy food, good health care, music, art, physical education, quality academics, canine therapy is essential for our children because they began life in difficult situations. Some of our children suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Others neglect. Some of this abuse started while they were still in the womb. Many birth mothers suffered from malnutrition and passed that on to their children.
We work diligently to help our kids overcome any obstacles so they may thrive academically, emotionally and physically.
‘If you give your child the same esteem you would give a great lecturer, then the child will know him – or herself to be valued and therefore will feel valuable. There is no better way to teach your children that they are valuable people than by valuing them..The more children feel valuable, the more they will then begin to say things of value. They will rise to your experience of them’
–M. Scott Peck