Children Home ‘El Redil’ in Santa Cruz.
The children’s home in Santa Cruz was built primarily for the children living in prison. In Bolivia, when the father or mother is given a prison sentence, they generally take their children with them to the prison because no one will take responsibility for these children. You can imagine that it is not a very safe environment for kids to grow up.
When Dick and Therèse Altena were confronted with this problem for the first time, there were about 800-1000 children in prison. They decided to begin their missionwork with this particular group of children. Cooperation from the authorities was out of question in the beginning. However, this changed during the following years, and other organizations followed the vision of Misión Timoteo and began to help take these children under their wings.
The first unit at El Redil was opened in January 1996.
Since that time, El Redil has grown and now looks like a small village. There is living space for roughly 50 children.
- Five units, houses where up to ten children can live with substitute parents, like a typical family.
- A house for the director and his family and some other houses for workers.
- A central kitchen and a large community room for group activities.
- A library, some service departments and a playground.
Daycare Centre ‘Manitos a la obra’