From The Founder and Director:
I would like share my history with Children’s Garden, address the concerns about visiting an orphanage, and explain why we think a short term trip can be so beneficial for a young person.
First, I would like to share my history with Children’s Garden.
They are not some random organization chosen out of thin air or selected because we thought helping at an orphanage would “look good” on our website. Over the last 10 years, spanning 3 separate visits, I have spent close to two months at their home for boys. I have been supporting them financially as a monthly donor for that long as well. Throughout that time I have known their leadership and stayed up to date with their progress. I have kept in contact with the boys I have met there throughout the years. And I intend to support and stay in relationship with this organization for the rest of my life.
I would also like to give context on how unique Children’s Garden is in terms of orphan care and how they run their organization. I’ve spent over 3 years living internationally, including 2 years visiting 25 countries as a missionary. In that time I’ve worked with a lot of different organizations working with and taking care of children. Children’s Garden is the most well run, effective and relationally based children’s home I’ve ever worked with. They are the only one I’ve chosen to continue to support and visit. I am proud to call them a partner of Denver Gap Year and look forward to many years of partnership with them.
Secondly, I want to address the issues surrounding orphan care.
It would be impossible to go into all the issues involving orphan care and problems associated with outside visitors coming to help. Nor do I want to go into a debate about whether orphanages should actually exist. The main thing I want you to know is that we are aware of those concerns and we are actively addressing them.
First, I want you to know that the safety of the boys (ages 12 - 18) at Children’s Garden will be safeguarded. All participants and staff members that go on our trip to the Philippines will undergo an official background check. And we will follow best practices along with abiding by all the policies of Children’s Garden while we are there. Secondly, our longstanding relationship with Children’s Garden allows us create a trip that is beneficial for both parties involved. You can read in the letter below why they value visiting teams, and trust that everything we do is in line with helping their mission. Third, we wholeheartedly believe in systemic solutions to poverty and the underlying issues that create orphans in the first place. We will be studying that throughout our program and have conversations about that surrounding our trip. But until the complex problems that cause orphans in the first place can be solved, we still believe supporting organizations helping orphans now is important.
Third: Why Short Term Trips Are Important For Young People.
I also understand that the issues surrounding and opinions about short term trips are complex. My staff has 10+ combined years of missions experience. This means that we know the good and bad of these trips firsthand. But we at Denver Gap Year believe if they are done well that the pros outweigh the cons.
When I was in college I went on 3 mission trips during my spring breaks. They were only one week long but they changed my life. I will never forget that first experience I had seeing the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It transformed my worldview and sent me on a radical journey that still affects every aspect of my life today. The career path I chose, everything I purchase and where I give my money all started on that one week trip. The same goes for the rest of the staff as well.
I want to give the participants of Denver Gap Year the chance to experience the same thing. Trips that get us out of the “bubble” of the USA and out into the realities of the rest of the world are powerful tools for transforming someone’s life. Our trip to the Philippines is intentionally put at the end our first semester because we believe it will be the catalyst for our participants second semesters. After a semester of digging into their identities this trip will push them to consider how their identity connects to the needs of the world around them.
But we don’t want these short term trips to only benefit the people coming from western countries and not for the people of developing countries around the world. That’s why our trip to the Philippines is designed the way it is. There will be extensive training before and after the trip that teaches our participants how to properly approach visiting a developing country. We will go over the mistakes that visitors from the west make and train them on how to actually help an overseas children’s home. And throughout all of this, we will work closely with our longtime partner, Children’s Garden, to make sure our actions and visits are beneficial to them.
Stay tuned for our next blog to hear from Children’s Garden about how they started and why they value visiting teams so highly.
Nate Evans
Founder and Director of Denver Gap Year