We're Giving Food to the El Salvador Orphanage

I think it's completely terrible that some kids don't even have a family. But then on top of that, they also don't have food.

My name is Alex Evans. I'm actually on the back roads of El Salvador right now, outside of the touristic zone, because I'm dropping off groceries at an orphanage. You're probably wondering why I'm in El Salvador. Well, to be honest, I'll keep it simple. The flights were cheap, and I live in Miami, so it's like two and a half hours away. Why am I buying groceries? Because I used to be an orphan myself, and that's just the way that I feel like I can give back.

I know it used to have a reputation for being quite violent, but from what I've learned, most of those criminals are actually locked up. And from my experience, it's been nothing but complete enjoyment. If you follow me online, you might know that I have a mission to provide 1 million meals for orphans worldwide. When I knew I was coming to El Salvador, I started firing off a few emails, and I literally told myself, I'm going to put it in God's hands. If He wants me to go to an orphanage and do another donation, He will make it happen. It will all work out very smoothly. And this is exactly what happened.

I was looking for orphanages here in El Salvador and I found Casa De Amor. Their website was very, very basic, and there was an email listed all the way at the bottom. I shot that email a message and I let them know that I was trying to expand my mission to provide meals for orphans worldwide. And Kathy was on the other line and responded. You see, she's actually based out of North Carolina, but she has connections here in El Salvador. So when she saw my video in Cape Town, South Africa of the donation, she knew it was legit, and she got me in touch with Roxana right away.

So later today I'm going to be meeting with Roxana. Both of them together run Casa De Amor, which means house of love. It's an under-the-radar orphanage here in El Salvador. Right now they're just renting out a small house from what I've been told, and apparently they also have a new location, so I'm going to be super eager to see if they can show me that today as well.

I think it's completely terrible that some kids don't even have a family, but then on top of that, they also don't have food. It blows my mind that this could be a reality. So I want to make a difference.

So I've been driving for like an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I got in some terrible traffic earlier, and I just pulled over to change. Not that I really feel like Roxana is actually going to care if I dress nice, but I feel like it's just the right thing to do to be presentable. So I pulled over to this random grocery store and I'm swapping out my shirt and my shorts, and I'm like two or three minutes away from meeting them. Then we're going to go to the supermarket, get all the supplies, and then I'll be on my way.

"We are buying some food for the kids in Casa De Amor, and we are going to buy some cookies, rice, beans. We're going to buy cereal, milk, and some of the others that the kids have every month."

Okay, so we're officially in the grocery store. I made it. And we're just doing a little bit of shopping. We're getting all the essentials. The rice, the beans, the hot dogs, the soup, everything that the kids could want. And I'm going to make sure that we get at least one month's worth of groceries here.

So it's nice. In comparison to Cape Town, we basically just did a lot of the guessing as to what kind of food items they actually needed. We got pretty much all the staples, all the basics, the oils, the salts, the non-perishables. But today we actually have Roxana here, and she knows exactly what she needs. So it's perfect.

"It's hot, but we did the job. We got the stuff." Yes, we have all the stuff here. Amazing. "Yeah, it took a lot of hands. I thought it would fit here." I didn't think it was going to fit in the car either. I'm surprised. All right, let's go to Casa De Amor.

If you're wondering how I even got into this, to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing. I just want to be very transparent about that. One thing that I do know, though, is that I don't want to just give away money to orphanages. I want to go there in person, and I want to actually give them the food. I want to make sure that I can meet the kids and then see what's actually going on behind the scenes.

"This is the common area. This is where they watch TV. They do lunch and food. We do everything with them. Homework center. Right now we just have one teenage boy, this is his bedroom. This is the little ones', there are four here. And this is the girls' bedroom. Each one has his own closet and his own clothes and everything. This is the laundry area. This is for dishes, and that one is for clothes. And this is the area where they play."

Do they spend a lot of time here? "Well, most of the time. They have school here, in the morning or afternoon. The youngest go in the morning from 7 to 11, and the oldest go from 1 to 5."

Have a lot of the kids been here for a long time? "Well, this group is the oldest. Most of them have been here like five years. But Antonio and Paula, the ones that were adopted by Kathy, they were six and seven when they came, and they left us at 16 and 17. They spent ten years with us."

How long have you been working here? "This year I will have twelve years. We try to make them feel like this is their house, you know, like a normal house, like a family house."

Do you know if any of them will be adopted? Do people reach out to you about that? "Yes. Sometimes the government does that, but sometimes when people get interested, we try to get in contact with the government and try to do it faster for them."

Have you ever had kids live here that were literally living on the street? "Yeah. And it's hard to work with them, because you try to show them something different, but they're not afraid of anything. They have lived in worse conditions than you could ever imagine. You can show them something different and you say, you're going to lose this, and they're like, I don't care. They never enjoyed something like that, you know, like a toy or something. So they are not afraid to lose it."

Do they ever reach out to you with more orphans to take care of? I heard that a lot of the orphanages in El Salvador are at capacity. "Yes. Well, right now our capacity is 15, but when we move to the new building, they are ready for us. They came and they saw everything, and they said, you just have to ask, and we bring the kids that you need and that you can take care of."

If somebody watches this video, can they reach out to you and adopt somebody here? "Yes. It depends on the kid and the situation, but yes, it's great when somebody is interested in taking care of a kid. And it changes the life of the kid."

I think people forget how amazing their lives are. I have my fruit, my coffee, my breakfast. I don't really have to think about any of that. But then you have kids in this world who have literally nothing. It's really nice to put it into perspective and then go provide some impact.

Believe it or not, it is 5:45 in the morning. I have never seen a city this bright this early, but they don't do daylight savings time here in El Salvador, so maybe that answers some of the questions. My time here in El Salvador is coming to a close. I can't believe all the stuff I've been able to do over just one weekend. I literally got here on Thursday, now it's Sunday and I'm leaving. From surfing in El Tunco, to hiking the Tamanique waterfall, to visiting Casa De Amor. What an insane weekend. And now I'm headed back to Miami.

So I just want to ask you guys, if you liked the video so far, please give it a thumbs up and then share it with a friend. Because when you share this video with a friend, that is your vote to say that you want to see more content like this in the world. And if you know of another orphanage I should visit, especially one that's close to Miami, comment down below. I'd love to visit it or get connected. All right, I'll see you guys later.

Transcript lightly edited for readability. Watch the full video above or on YouTube.