Father Peter Chmielecki SCJ writes to the Adoptive Parents of the St. Francis Home for Girls in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Cochabamba, 16th June 2025
Dear Padrinos,
in this letter, which I am writing from Cochabamba, from the Hogar de Niñas San Francisco orphanage, I would like to share with you my first impressions of this place, which until now I had only known through stories and letters.
I was truly shocked to see the tiny rooms the children live in. Each one is only about 9 square meters, and four (!) girls live in that space. They sleep on bunk beds - the younger ones on the bottom, and the older girls, high school or college students, on the top. They have to store all their clothes and shoes in a single closet. Bathrooms and toilets are located in the hallway. Virtually the entire operation of the Hogar de Niñas San Francisco relies on the significant contributions of 20 female students - alumnae - who, by caring for their younger peers, cooking, and cleaning, "repay the debt of gratitude" for the privilege of living at the St. Francis Home for Girls. There are 60 residents in total, and the facility employs only two staff members. The foundation of the entire organization is the dedication of three Sisters from the Congregation of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: two Bolivian women, and the director, sister Anna Kurysz from Poland.
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The second time my surprise ran out of scale was when one morning I looked into the kitchen during breakfast. On the table - in a plastic bowl - lay a pile of rolls prepared for consumption. I opened one of them and saw only a little bit of margarine inside... Of course, children's menus don't look like this every day, but in general, girls eat very modestly. I can safely say that there is even empirical evidence for this. Indeed, very many Bolivians are obese. This stems from their lifestyle and nutrition. Sports are not a favorite hobby here, and a large body mass further emphasizes the social status of its holder. Among the residents of the House of St. Francis, only one girl I would describe as obese (I believe, however, that she looks that way for genetic reasons), and the others are mostly very skinny. I am not writing this to arouse your sympathy and perhaps also to increase your generosity in this way. Rather, I write this with admiration for the Sisters, who, with very modest material resources, are able to manage them in such a way that the children go neither hungry, nor dirty, nor sick, nor otherwise neglected. To better understand the context of the situation, it is worth knowing that in "our orphanage" most of the girls live in much better conditions than they had in the homes from which they are from...
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I often ask Sister Anna how a particular girl "got recruited." Most cases can be boiled down to two reasons: rape and drug trafficking. For example, there are two cousins living in Hogar de Niñas San Francisco. Their mothers lost their parents at a very young age and went to be raised by their immediate family. One sister was regularly raped by her uncle, and became pregnant with him at age 15. Abigail's mother is currently serving a prison sentence in a South American country for drug trafficking. On the other hand, the other sister also gave birth at a very young age and decided to kill her daughter by feeding her rat poison... Although it has been several years since this attempt on her life, to this day little Marisol has huge stomach problems and it is difficult to encourage her to eat. The girl's mother did not visit her at the orphanage for two years. Recently, however, she turned up. She gave birth to her second child and lives in the Peruvian part of the Amazon. She began showering Marisol with expensive gifts. So it is very likely that she is working in the production or trafficking of drugs - this occupation is a specialty of the inhabitants of hard-to-reach areas of the Amazon.
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The stories of some of the children I met here are very painful, sometimes even dramatic. Nonetheless, life at the orphanage in Cochabamba seems very normal. Every morning there are battles to make sure the children get out of bed on time, wash themselves, comb their beautiful, thick and long hair, eat breakfast, and dress in school uniforms (which are compulsory in Bolivia). Sister Anna says the girls take great care of their appearance - that's how they hide their whereabouts from their classmates. After returning from school, the girls eat lunch, do their homework under the supervision of hired teachers, and pray the rosary in the chapel before dinner. The prayers of the children included in the "Adoption of Love" are carried to heaven every day for the Padrinos, the people who regularly support them. And after dinner comes time for bed. As Sister Anna says, "you have to sleep quickly," because at night, in a city located over 2,500 meters above sea level, it's just cold, and there's no heating in the house... But that's a topic for another story about the children of "Adoption of Love."
With warm greetings from Bolivia
Fr. Peter Chmielecki SCJ
