One year post-COVID: March 2021 Comprehensive Update
It was one year ago that the world changed for so many of us. The past days and the coming weeks will mark anniversaries of sorts as Covid became personal in all of our lives. We wanted to take a moment, look back, and update you on where Casa Bernabé is today amid the continuing development of Covid in Guatemala.
A year ago, this week, Sara Salguero shared this, “My day was spent talking about how we are going to protect our community of 200 during this coronavirus crisis. We spent time discussing how to protect them, but also how to occupy 100 children for the next month. We prayed. It was a heavy morning, but more than ever, I am so incredibly grateful for the amazing team that serves at Casa Bernabé. We are all committed to using this time to invest even more in our children. For the first time in a long time, we don't have to say, ‘if I only I wasn't so busy, I would....’ Of course, we will still be busy...we have 100 kids that can't leave or receive any kind of outside interaction for the next month or longer! But we won't have to fill our days with so many administrative duties or other jobs that often times take us away from our most important job. We are praying even now that 2020 is the year that we can look back at Casa Bernabé's story and say, ‘That was the year Revival came to us. That was the year our kids and youth really came to know Jesus!’
When those words were written we couldn’t have known that one year later we would still be largely closed to the outside world, continuing to work with a reduced staff, and now on the other side of a Covid breakout within our walls that affected almost half of everyone living on our campus. Here is a look at where we stand one year later.
Operational Update - Recognizing that 2021 was going to continue to bring challenges that we have never before seen, we worked hard to reduce our budget to reflect the financial challenges we anticipated. We have trimmed programs to only offer the absolute necessary services. We have trimmed staff, spreading the work between fewer hands. We have become as lean as we possibly can while continuing to provide care for some of Guatemala’s most vulnerable children.
However, we are unable to adjust the need to match the decrease we have begun to see trending in our giving.
Financial Update –
Because of a key matching grant, and so many donations of all levels, we were able to meet Casa Bernabé’s needs amid the emergent pandemic in 2020. We are grateful for the generosity of so many of you. You enabled us to continue loving, educating, and impacting lives in the name of Jesus.
The first two months of 2021 have continued a trend we began to see developing in the 3rd quarter of 2021, with giving being down 30% yoy. Our continued inability to host teams creates a $115,000 deficit through a loss of room and board in addition to project fund donations. The ripple effects of this continue to be felt additionally in all of the physical needs that teams met while being the hands and feet of Jesus “on the ground” in Casa Bernabé.
We are faced with new health-driven protocols, an increased need to receive children, and potential new governmental rulings demanding we move from virtual education to in-person learning for our community children. (See below.)
Globally, the pandemic has affected all of us to one extent or another. Many Guatemalans suffered extreme need as their government is not equipped to handle any type of public support and we continue to face decreased local giving in Guatemala.
Ministry Update –
The Bible talks about fire as a refining tool of our faith, strengthening and clarifying it. We have seen this happening in the lives of our children and staff. The struggles have caused them to dig deep, to lean into Christ, to grow. Sara’s prayer for revival in 2020 has played out into reality.
Our Children’s Home continues to be the heartbeat of our ministry. This past year we have converted our “baby house” into our Covid transition home. With a cessation in calls to receive babies we have been able to take this home and utilize it to receive new children in a safe manner by following a strict Covid intake protocol. The past 6 weeks have seen a significant increase in the number of children in need of care. We are also seeing family reunifications happening more quickly as well which is changing the face of Casa Bernabé to better reflect the government guidelines, creating more of a group foster care system as Guatemala has no formal foster care system.
This has also led to the development of Project: Independence. A project dedicated to helping successfully transition those children who will age out of our care into independence. Most of the 43 children in this program have grown up within the walls of Casa Bernabé and their biological families will not be a resource for them in this transition. You can learn more about that program here.
Our new school buildings were just two weeks from being completed when we closed the gate last March. A few weeks ago, we had a dedication ceremony for not only the 3 new classrooms but also our new administration building, celebrating their completion. They, and our new soccer field (completed just before we closed the gated last year) are beautiful additions to our campus. More importantly, they will have life changing impact on the children who are blessed to use them. We still have almost 300 children enrolled in our Casa Bernabé school, but only our on-campus children are able to attend class in person in an effort to protect those living on our campus. Our community children are attending school virtually. Our older children (10th grade and above) are all attending school virtually as well. Turning kitchen tables into classrooms for sometimes 7 or 8 students at a time and our house moms and dads into classroom monitors. There have been recent demonstrations in Guatemala City outside the Ministry of Education demanding that private schools open their doors back up for in-person learning. This is a situation that continues to develop and we have developed a plan in the event the government mandates we open our doors back up to our community students.
Our Families United team continues to function in a virtual fashion, with video court hearings via zoom and digital communications with our families in the instances where we are able to maintain those connections. For most of 2020 we didn’t have any reunifications happening. However, the last 4 months have begun to bring some movement for our children.
Our clinic continues to be closed to the community but our doctor has been busier than ever as the sole medical provider for the 200 people living on our campus through a global pandemic. Dr. Tabita has just finish her first year with us and has been an immense blessing. She tirelessly tested and treated all of our children and staff during the recent COVID outbreak all while managing not to contract the virus herself. Praise God!
This past year we have begun a new tradition at Casa Beranbé as we are seeing more and more children reunited with their families. We have begun giving children a puzzle piece in a glass jar as they leave as a reminder that, no matter how long or short our time together was they are always part of something bigger, our Casa Bernabé family and God’s family. We recently had a set of young sisters being reunited with an aunt after a short 2 month stay with us. As Edgar went to say goodbye to the girls on a Saturday afternoon and give them their puzzle pieces, he asked a simple question.
“What have you received from your time at here Casa Beranbé?”
Without hesitation one of the young girls answered, “What it means to follow God. I never knew much about Him until I came here.”
Edgar then asked her if she had ever received Jesus in her hear and she said no. He asked her if she would like to and she said yes so Edgar was able to pray with her to receive salvation.
This moment is an eternal answer to Sara’s prayer. It is a reminder of the truth of what they are doing at Casa Bernabe even in the midst of everything else.
2020 was a wild ride that showed us, now more than ever, those we serve need the stability and care that we provide and in order to do that, we need you. Will you prayerfully consider how you might partner with us?