Current Status
The Victory Center
is a ministry to street girls in Morelia, Mexico, that is
sponsored by Arms of
Love.
The Victory Center receives girls that have been abandoned
and abused, with a focus on girls between 8-15 years of age
who have been physically or sexually abused or engaged in
prostitution. Some engaged in prostitution as a means of
survival on the streets, while others were forced into
prostitution by one or both parents. The Victory Center is
the only ministry in Morelia that provides long-term
residential care that focuses on the special needs of these
girls.
The current facility
opened in September 2006. A two-story, 6300 square foot
residential facility on the outskirts of Morelia, the
Victory Center is currently caring for 6-10 girls at any
given time. The facility can accommodate additional girls
and also contains a large kitchen,
dining facilities, rooms
for education and vocational training, and staff
accommodations. A cement court behind the facility can be
used for basketball and volleyball, and two classrooms have
been constructed that can host classes for other
children-at-risk and adults in the surrounding community.
While some of the girls attend school locally, others are
unable to attend a regular school due to a lack of proper
documentation or learning disabilities, and are tutored
individually within the home.
Future plans
Many of the
girls currently living at the Victory Center have made the
adjustment to their new living environment, are doing well
in school, and are ready to move into a more permanent
"children's home" environment. Accordingly, we are currently
looking to hire a
housemother or
houseparents who can staff the children's home. When the
right staff are identified, the first group of girls will
move out of the Victory Center and move into a single family
house that will serve as the first "children's home." The
Victory Center will then continue to receive new girls from
the streets into the current facility.
The
Victory Center is currently connected with a
non-denominational church on the opposite side of Morelia as
its church home. We are continuing to pray for a new church
plant near the Victory Center facility, and we will do what
we can to support that church planting effort when it
commences.
Our most
significant need is for additional staff. Much of the staff
of the Victory Center have been volunteers from the U.S. who
have worked with the ministry for a year or two at a
time. Moreover, it has been difficult to identify,
hire, and retain local staff that have a
heart and vision
for this type of ministry. Whether you are from Mexico, the
U.S., or elsewhere, if you feel God calling you to work with
adolescent street grills from difficult backgrounds, please
e-mail us and let us know. With additional long-term staff,
there is enormous potential for expanding the scope of this
significant ministry.
