Casa de Luz will serve children with severe disabilities
By Jan Pudlow
Associate Editor
Five years ago, Miami lawyer O. Frank Valladares was shocked by the sight of malnourished orphans with severe disabilities, abandoned at birth, and warehoused in squalor in the Dominican Republic, one boy kept in a 3-foot-by-4-foot cage.

Today, Valladares is excitedly anticipating welcoming the first 64 orphans to Casa de Luz (House of Light), their sparkling new home near the Caribbean, where they will enjoy fresh air and sunshine from terraces.

“One spoonful at a time,” is how Valladares sums up his sometimes overwhelming mission to feed these special-needs orphans, what he called the “forgotten children,” first chronicled in the Bar News in October 1, 2001.

“God put it in our hearts to do whatever we can to feed these children, heal them, bring them comfort and relief, and alleviate their suffering,” Valladares said. “The challenges we face seem insurmountable at times, but they are actually a series of great opportunities disguised as impossible situations.”

Consider these opportunities seized by Valladares and his wife, Lourdes, on their mission called Project Child:

• In April 2003, they acquired about five acres of land, donated by the Dominican Republic government about 10 minutes from the airport.

• In May 2004, Dominican Republic President Hipolito Mejia signed a decree recognizing their mission, Project Child, as a nonprofit corporation to facilitate construction efforts and allow them to bring in supplies duty-free.

• Their dream to remove 85 children from the once dilapidated orphanage with no running water, faulty wiring, and leaky roof and give them a safe and pleasant new home is coming closer to reality. Casa de Luz hopes to welcome the first 64 children before the end of the year.

The estimated cost of construction of Casa de Luz is about $600,000 in U.S. dollars, and will include a wing for boys and a wing for girls, with room eventually for 128 children. It will also have doctors’ offices, a pharmacy, cafeteria, kitchen, laundry room, rooms for physical therapy, occupational therapy, employee lounge, and open terraces where the children can get fresh air and sunlight.

A staff of 13 full-time employees make sure the children are well cared for: eight nurses or care-givers, one medical doctor, two part-time cooks, a maintenance/custodian worker, and laundry person.

“I certainly had no idea five years ago I would be doing this,” said Valladares,

But there was no turning back once he stepped into that orphanage in 1999 and vowed to rescue these “forgotten children.”

Now, Valladares calls it a “delicate balancing act” to continue to care for the orphans while raising money for the new home, and he admits their bank accounts are “dangerously low.”

“It is not easy raising money for special needs children thousands of miles away in a Caribbean island, but that is the burden God has put in our hearts,” Valladares said.

As always, he remains optimistic that help will continue to come from Florida’s lawyers and others who believe in their mission.

“We are very hopeful and excited for the future of not only the 85 special needs children we currently care for, but other children in need in the Dominican Republic that are still suffering from neglect, lack of food, lack of care, and lack of love,” Valladares said.
For more information about Project Child and how to become involved call (305) 271-0467; toll free (877) 807-5050 (for monetary gifts only); e-mail: projectchild@bellsouth.net; Web page: www.projectchild.org; or write at 10030 SW 84th Street, Miami 33173.