You'd never guess it, but in the above picture, Brenda was not yet rescued. She was participating in a feeding program in Guatemala supported by Heaven's Family. As our partner organization worked with her, it became apparent that Brenda was being abused. Instead of seeing progress with her, the partner saw that she was continuing to be malnourished, that her hair was falling out, and that the orange tint in what should have been black hair was not going away.

A minefield of dog feces and a diarrhea-filled diaper were just a few of the items we had to tiptoe around today to get to young Joseph's home. For outsiders like us, the stench of the slum where eight-year-old Joseph lives was extremely potent. Joseph, however, is accustomed to the smell. His family has lived in this slum, which sits right next to Guatemala's largest garbage dump, for generations. But that generational cycle will end with Joseph, thanks in part to you!

You'd never guess that Sharon used to work at the city dump in Guatemala. Along with the other pickers, she would search through the mounds of trash left behind by the garbage trucks—looking for something she could sell to earn a living, or some food scraps she could salvage to feed her daughter and herself. The work was dangerous and Sharon has many scars—physical as well as emotional. She longed for a better future for her daughter.