House Mother of Tuparenda - the first chance of their life

Casa Madre de Tuparenda is more than just a house, it is a program and the first chance of a lifetime for up to 20 young people who come here after their release from juvenile prison to get the tools they need to start a new life.
Where do these young offenders come from? From the poorest class in Paraguay, from dysfunctional families, from settlements without running water, electricity or medical care. Many of them have lived on the streets alone since the age of six or seven because their fathers or mothers were in prison, were looking for work abroad, other relatives and grandparents had died or were also in prison. Hardly any of them ever went to school, hunger and desperation led them to steal, drugs numbed their misery. At some point, they ended up in juvenile prison. Some because they actually stole a cell phone or a motorcycle. Some because the police simply got them mixed up and they only get a trial after two or three years in prison, if at all.
In the juvenile prison in Itauguá, there is a group of men and women who look after these young people.

At some point, these people notice how often a boy who has been released from prison is back after a short time.

This gave rise to the idea of building a house for young men between the ages of 14 and 18 where they could learn social skills and train as bakers, gardeners and industrial seamstresses - all professions that are urgently needed and where there are good job opportunities. A whole network of companies has been acquired where these young people first do an internship after the nine-month program and are then taken on as permanent employees.
When a boy then says: "I want to be the father for my children that I never had", you can feel what this project means.