Bright Eyes & Warm Hearts

This past Monday Amy and I had a break from classes. This holiday was in recognition of “Constitution Day” in Mexico. (While our language skills continue to show evidence of improving, there’s still a lot of room for growth in the history department. As it was, the resulting four-day-week was a nice surprise.) With a day off from the university Amy, Caleb and I were able to accompany one of our local pastors and his wife in visiting a women’s and children’s home that operates in the north-west of Mexico City.

Fundación Dar Y Amar (“to give and to love”) was founded 12 years ago as a home for girls and adolescent mothers and their children. All of these young women have been placed into DAYA’s program through government, social-aid workers and each comes from a background of either virtual homelessness or abusive families. Above is a picture of the exterior of their facility. At present this building serves as a home for twelve young Moms and their children ranging in age from a few months old through roughly 10 years. The program’s mission is to offer physical protection and shelter for the young women while instilling in them basic family values (the awareness of said values is something that I often wrongly presume are common knowledge). Additionally, the program offers both education and therapeutic services to the Moms and children that are enrolled in the program.