A dozen or more years ago, I was visiting La Familia when the hogar was located in Cd. Serdan, about an hour’s drive from Palmarito, the current home to Casa Hogar La Familia. One of our missioners from Signal Mountain, Tennessee was out jogging one morning when he met a fellow gringo running on the streets of rural Cd. Sedan. As it turned out, the gringo runner was the owner of Altech, a Serdan-based bio-tech firm that extracts an enzyme from Yucca trees they use as a supplement in chicken food. The purpose of the enzyme is to practically eliminate chicken house odor.
Discussing La Familia as they ran together, the bio chemist later made a commitment to invest not only money, but moral support to the casa hogar. So for the past 15 or so years, Altech has been no stranger to the children of La Familia.
On a recent visit to the home, one of the Altech executives asked the directors what were some of their needs Altech might help with. Silvia pointed to the balconies cantilevered off the main building — the balconies had no railings, making the balconies unsafe to use.
Altech committed to fund the installation of railings for the balconies. On the same day, they also committed the funds to complete the perimeter wall surrounding the children’s home.
As you can see from the photographs below, the balconies on both ends of the casa hogar now have railings. Our thanks go out to the good people of Altech for the contribution they are making to the children of La Familia.
The bottom photo shows cultivation of yucca trees for harvest. For every tree Altech harvests, they plant three more. Pictured in the distance is Pico de Orizaba, which at 18,800 feet in height is the second tallest mountain in North America.
Bill Lee, President
Embrace the Dream Foundation
PO Box 5558
Greenville, SC 29606