Sophomore Maeve Dowdle and first-year student Rachel Nellis have teamed up in an effort to get the St. Thomas community involved in Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos USA.

Spanish for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters,” NPH USA is a nonprofit organization that takes in and supports disadvantaged children from nine different countries in Latin America.

“They have the kids at the home until eighth grade, and then they have a house, with an ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle’ is what they call them, in the cities for the high schoolers,” Dowdle said. “They have about 3,000 kids that they’re taking care of right now.”

Dowdle and Nellis began their involvement with the organization separately and visited different homes, but they both share similar experiences.

The two met when they were both volunteering for NPH, and now they’re working together to get more people in the community involved and, eventually, start a club at St. Thomas.

“We’re taking small steps right now,” Nellis said. “We’re hoping to maybe get it rolling within the next year.”

Dowdle has been on three separate week-long trips to the home in Guatemala and also sponsors a nine-year-old boy who lives there. Being involved in NPH has shown her the value of relationships.

“I would say realizing that relationships are important is probably the thing that has impacted me the most,” Dowdle said. “I look at those kids who don’t have parents or were left by them, so it’s really made me realize I need to cherish those relationships.”

Nellis has been to the home in Mexico, and she also said the kids have taught her a lot.

“The kids down there share everything they have. There’s nothing they have down there that is their own.” Nellis said. “So just the humility that you can learn from being there with them. … These kids were like the happiest people that I have ever met before.”

Dowdle said it is important for people to get involved because it has such a great impact on the kids in the homes.

“To know that people are caring for them and loving them — even from so far away — just lets them know that they are really loved, and that’s really what they need right now,” Dowdle said.

Right now, their hope is to do anything they can to help the homes, including raising awareness.

“Orphanages have such a strong name, and a negative name, associated with them,” Nellis said. “They’re not just orphanages, but they’re homes.”

Kassie Vivant can be reached at viva0001@stthomas.edu.