Ivo

I first met Ivo in January of 2012.  He is a street kid, and upon our finding each other, it has been a lovefest. He has an infectious smile and a heart looking tos share its love. When my sister met him this past December, she agreed that if this kid was in the states, he would grow to be a rock star!
 He lives with his father, his father’s girlfriend, his sister Valerie, new baby brother Victor, and the girlfriend's mother in a small shed behind the house I was renting. 

Ivo’s mother took Ivo and his sisters to her native Honduras, to escape her domestic situtation. During this time, she had an opportunity to return to the states (she has a complicated life story which includes a reversed adoption as a child).  While here, Ivo's father went to Honduras and took the children out of her mother's home and took them back to Belize. 

I believe Ivo's father is - at the core - a good man.  However, with the delivery of a baby over Christmas, his focus is his new family.  He has never made his children accountable to school, and like many parents, use "lashing" as their only form of discipline. He has 2 other daughters too.  One of them is 14 and just had a baby.  She is currently in a girl's home in Belize City.

After a year of work, I finally found a school on the island that would enroll Ivo. Because he has never gone to school, he was too old - at the ripe old age of 9 - to be accepted into most of the schools. Until January 7th, 2013,  Ivo spent his days and nights  in the street.

He is doing well considering he is in an 8-3 structured environment for the first time.  He is currently learning his alphabet and seems to find math  his most natural subject.  Our biggest concern has been his lack of discipline in the classroom.  In addition to an entire lack of education, he has limited language. Also, physicality is his only language for frustration.  God Bless the teacher who is not only teaching her regular class, but is now also having to start at the beginning with Ivo.

I am proud to say, that my former O'Gorman student Jacob Barclay -  now a teacher himself -  is graciously paying for Ivo's education, as there is no public education in Belize.

Ivo runs away a lot. I am not sure if it is because of a lack of food (as he always claims he is hungry) or emotional negligence..However, in is not uncommon for him to knock on doors of some of my friends and an elderly relative on his mother's side.

Since my return to the states, I have found and am in communications with Ivo's mother.  She is living in the US and wants nothing more than for Ivo and his sister Valerie (age 13) to join her.  However, this is a tricky immigration case. 

Please pray for safety and compassion for Ivo and his entire family.  Please pray for patience and guidance for his teachers and the Isla Bonita school. As I continue to work with lawyers to assist in Ivo's and Valerie's most to the states, I ask for your prayers.