Hermano Pedro, Antigua, Guatemala

We visited the Hermano Pedro Orphanage and Hospital near the center of town in Antigua.  There we spent our time playing with the kids with different activities depending on their level of coherence.  We played a form of baseball with bouncy balls and a broomstick and helped sweep the courtyard.  Some of the children were simply unable to communicate yet being in their presence speaking their name brought them a smile.  The kids there are mostly both mentally and physically challenged and have been discarded there by their families.  Some families simply have no understanding or care to be hospitable to their challenged children.  This is where Hermano Pedro Orphanage comes in.

 

  

The hospital is  a multi-service facility
providing a home, and care for the elderly and orphaned, the mentally challenged and
chronically ill. Over three hundred people ranging in age from a few days to over ninety
live at Hermano Pedro permanently. In addition, Hermano Pedro offers a school for the
handicapped children and a nutrition center where malnourished infants and children are
treated.  Hermano Pedro has approximately five hundred beds and cribs housing individuals with chronic disorders such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, mental retardation,
Alzheimer's disease, polio paralysis, deafness and blindness, and senile dementia.