We (Frank and Lourdes Valladares of St Petersburg, Florida) founded Project ChildHelp in 1999 after visiting several orphanages in the Dominican Republic. The conditions were deplorable. We saw many children...

We (Frank and Lourdes Valladares of St Petersburg, Florida) founded Project ChildHelp in 1999 after visiting several orphanages in the Dominican Republic. The conditions were deplorable. We saw many children with neurological diseases who could not care for themselves, living in sub-human conditions. Many of them were kept in cages and literally treated like animals, and all of them were malnourished and dehydrated. For the next few years, We organized mission trips to the Dominican Republic, taking teams of Doctors and Nurses to care for the forgotten children. We purchased food and medicine for them, among other vital items. Participating in these missions for four years gave us first hand experience in how we can literally save lives with just a little bit of effort and dedication. Given the poor hygienic conditions and lack of staff at the existing orphanages, we opened our own 24/365 care facility in 2006 for neglected special needs children near Santo Domingo. At the end of 2008, we have 19 resident children and room for 40 more. This is an act of faith on our part because we do not know from month to month whether we will be able to meet payroll for our nurses and caregivers. But we believe it was necessary to have the "hands" to feed, bathe and love the children. We have also set up a network of volunteers in the Dominican Republic to assist us in carrying out our mission, and many volunteers come on teams from the US to construct the needed buildings.