Sociedad Amigos de los Niños was founded in 1966 to provide shelter and safety for Honduras’  vulnerable children—neglected, abandoned, abused, or orphaned in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Led by its founder, Sister Maria Rosa Leggol, Sociedad’s children’s homes and programs provide a safe and loving haven for kids desperate for care, attention, and a chance for a brighter future.

The Projects of Sociedad Amigos de los Niños

Pedro Atala Children's Homes 

The Hogares Don Pedro Atala in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, are four small-group homes that meet the urgent needs of 60 at-risk city children: homeless, abandoned, subject to gang violence, or forced to stay in prison with their incarcerated mothers. At Pedro Atala, these children live with housemothers and receive healthcare, education, psychological and spiritual counseling, and guidance for a more promising future. The director of Pedro Atala, is a fierce advocate for their safety, education, and well-being and a firm and loving Tia (“aunt”) to each of them. She and the rest of Sociedad empower children with schooling, tutoring, and work experience so they can lead self-supporting lives as adults, ending generational cycles of poverty and unemployment.  

Nuevo Paraíso Children's Homes

Nearly 100 abandoned or orphaned children live in group homes with housemothers in Nuevo Paraíso, a rural property an hour outside Tegucigalpa, where they attend school and computer training, receive healthcare and counseling, and regain their childhood with the love and attention of housemothers.

Flor Azul Youth Farm

Eighty young men, ages 12 to 18, from rural areas of extreme poverty, live at Flor Azul. They attend school, study agriculture and business, raise chickens and pigs and tilapia, and run at Internet café and convenience store at Nuevo Paraíso. They also run a guesthouse at Flor Azul for visitors and medical brigades. 

Reyes Irene Vocational Training Center 

Founded in Tegucigalpa to eradicate widespread child labor, the center enrolls 400 teenage women, offering them primary and secondary accelerated education. health education and healthcare, legal support, and technical and vocational training in computers, textiles, hair design, and other businesses.

Hospital and Medical Brigades 

A primary-care facility for a regional population of 250,000 to 300,000 people, Hospital Santa Rosa de Lima offers general practice, dental and lab services, childbirth care, 40 in-patient beds, and 24-hour ambulance service. In addition, roughly 100 groups of foreign medical  professionals and volunteers make medical brigades to villages in the region each year.

Schools

Three schools at Nuevo Paraíso--a kindergarten, elementary school, and technical high
school--enroll more than 800 students and employ some 50 teachers and staff. There is also a classroom at Flor Azul and a kindergarten at Pedro Atala.

Self-Sustaining Microbusinesses

Businesses operated by SAN and many of the organization's grown children include two guesthouses, a brick factory, carpentry shop, bakery, dining hall, hospital cafeteria, plaintain chip factory, and an Internet café and convenience store.