The Valpo Core Reader
 

Authors

Taylor Acker

Document Type

Work and Vocation Essay

Publication Date

2008

Excerpt

Rachel Sebold's job title includes sister, wife, aunt and mother. She works with Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, meaning Our Little Brothers and Sisters, in English, her role there being to work as a sister. Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) is an international organization that has acted as an orphanage and more for over 15,000 children in eight different countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (Nuestros Pequefios Hermanos). The organization describes its mission as, "to provide shelter, food, clothing, healthcare and education in a Christian family environment" (Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos). Rachel works with NPH as a wife because both she and her husband, Matt, work as a team to provide love and support to the boys in their "family." Rachel and Matt have the titles of Tia and Tio, meaning aunt and uncle, for their positions within NPH. In their work as tia and tio they are challenged and changed as they act as the surrogate mothers and fathers for the children in each age group. These titles are only pieces of the whole in the way in which Rachel's work creates a family for a small group of street boys that, in tum, forms movements of a stronger family community for the world.

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