Greetings to you in the USA, who have already opted in to know more about our work because of the emails that you have received over the past couple of months from us via Donor Spring.
You are receiving this newsletter from New Zealand – the land of Hobbits and The Lord of the Rings. Our ministry is now very international-based – we are no longer just a tiny Kiwi New Zealand-based organisation anymore. We feel so proud that you have opted in to our work via Donor Spring. What an honour! I hope to get back to the States in the next 18 months, so perhaps I could meet with some of you in the future? I am a “Bills guy,” so anybody living in the Buffalo area would totally be a priority to meet with!
Our first project commenced 35 years ago when my wife and I departed New Zealand for Bangkok, where we relocated to the edge of what was reputedly the world’s largest slum, Khlong Toey. We had 12 - 13-year-old male street kids come to live with us. These were boys who had been selling themselves as prostitutes to foreign male sex tourists.
HONDURAS
You know who Barack Obama is, right? Of course you do, but … do you know our Barack Obama? He is so cute. Barack is smart because the little guy, aged just 13 years, is already studying in Grade 7. His older brother also lives with us and will soon be embarking on college education. Sadly, Barack has faced violence and grief that nobody should ever have to encounter. Let’s support him to discover a great future where he can acquire a college degree and end up as a professional man. It is all doable.
In 2025, we worked to raise funds to commence a new work for girls in Honduras’ second city, San Pedro Sula, but we were unable to find funds. We are aware too that we have community leaders in Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, wanting to start work there as well. We are very challenged by this and so we continue to work hard on this because children there are so terribly at risk of the gangs.
One of our Honduran boys with his family. We stress with our guys that they must maintain consistent contact with their families, even though during most of the school terms they live at our safehouse.
Story One: Kindly Note: This particular boy’s house is located on the turf boundary between the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs – not a great place to be.
“There are a lot of bandits where I live. Right now, it's calmer, but before, it was common to have shootings. Yes, there were killings around my area too. And I have met and known some people who have been murdered... I was probably about 10 years old, studying in about 5th or 6th grade, when I was off on an errand for my school, when I saw a motorcycle taxi coming towards me very fast. The taxi was intercepted at the street corner, and some gangsters then shot the driver several times. I watched while it happened, then I turned around quickly and ran away… later I realised that it [murder] could happen to anyone if a gang member was in a bad mood”
He is now aiming to do a Bachelor of Business Administration at a quality university that is located adjacent to our safehouse. His current school grade average is in the mid 90’s.
Below are two selected excerpts from recent Q and A interviews with two of our Honduran students living in our San Pedro Sula boys’ home.
Story 2: “In my neighbourhood, there are gangs, but they respect my grandmother because she is a pastor and they know who she is. I have been a little afraid living in my zone because there have been several murders with police and gangsters fighting and shooting at each other … When I was 5 or 6 years old, I once saw two people suddenly take out a gun and kill someone … With things like this happening, I could only play directly in front of my house and not wander off… Nobody has tried to recruit me for a gang, but I know how they do it: They ask kids to work for them by selling marijuana, alcohol or cigarettes. Or maybe they will ask kids to be lookouts for them.” “Kids join the gangs because they think that the gangs are powerful. For example, if the police are armed and want to arrest them, then the gangs are also armed and can defend themselves with bullets. Or if someone is threatening them, they can call the whole gang in to kill them. So, this has been my life.”
Life at the San Pedro Sula Empower House:the POWER How do I feel about living here at the EMPOWER house? I am more relaxed, calmer, and going to school, I feel more at ease. I can safely go to church and play football too. Now I am already in 9th grade, where I get excellent grades. I work hard every day to do my homework and behave well.
The Routine at Our Home: At 5 am, one of the older boys wakes us up. We shower, then do Bible study time together. This is led by one of the boys. Then we have breakfast and go off to school, which is from 7 am till midday. When we return home, we have to hand-wash our school uniform, and then we eat lunch. After this, we have prayer time, and we do our spiritual diary. A spiritual diary is when we read a chapter of the Bible, and we have to write down the message that we find God is teaching us, and then we discuss this with the brothers and talk about what we have learned, and also share about our lives. Then we do our homework. If our homework is difficult, then one of the brothers might help, or one of our house parents’ children will help us because they are grown up and attend university. After that, we have free time where we can play ball or watch TV.
OUR AIM
We are committed to resourcing a network of indigenous-operated leadership development homes for impoverished teenagers so that, in time, these young people can move out as educated, faith-based adult change-agents within their own communities. Pleasingly, this aim is coming to fruition because we see our graduates now leading our works in Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal.
A CHAPTER BOOK We have begun compiling a Chapter Book that describes testimonies/biographies of our young people. Below is an excerpt on the life of Ros Vibol, our Cambodia board chair and a graduate of our EMPOWER Cambodia work.
“Firstly, let me explain about what happened with the Khmer Rouge in the 70s and 80s in Cambodia. As you may know, there was a revolution in our country – anybody who was suspected of being an intellectual was executed – even people who wore glasses were put to death. The Khmer Rouge wanted to make us something akin to being an agricultural utopia with rights for all. But this utopia included the torture and murder of more than 1.5 to 2.2 million of my fellow countrymen, which represented about 15% to 30% of the population at this time … I was born in 1988. I was a village boy. I was aged just 10 years old when I gave up my schooling. I was illiterate. One day I got taken to the village pagoda, where for six months a Buddhist monk taught me how to read and write. I got pretty good. Then I returned to formal grade school again. When I did exams, my old teacher thought that I was cheating because I could do a three-hour exam in just one and a half hours. For my geography exam, he stood next to me for the whole exam just to see if I was cheating. I am so grateful to the monk for helping me. I have tried to find him to thank him, but I suspect that he has died. “
To read Vibol’s full story, you can click here
KOLKATA
Our girls come from West Bengal State, India. They are kids at risk of sex trafficking. In fact, they come from one of the biggest sex trafficking zones in all of India.
What is in a person that they would consider selling beautiful little girls like this?
In this photo, you can see our cute little elementary school-aged girls. We also have 16 high school girls and two others studying at college level.
Click on the link here to view a brief video. You will see so many girls and so many bikes on their way to high school.
While EMPOWER Asia Latin America is a faith-based organization, we do not force our young people to become Christian. We do not have altar calls, nor are we interested in pressuring vulnerable young people. At the same time, while we are obviously Christian-based, we do not hide this from the children or their guardians. In Asia, many of our kids come from Buddhist backgrounds; we are not interested, nor would it even be fruitful, to criticise Buddhist beliefs. EMPOWER chooses to be positive as opposed to looking down on others.
We are government-registered in both El Salvador and Honduras and are close to being registered in Guatemala. In the USA, we have 501C (3) charity status so that you may receive a tax rebate on donations given.
$70/month pays for the all-around monthly education costs for one of our Honduran boys, including school and exam fees, books, uniforms, extra activities, etc.
I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to write to me at empowerasia@gmail.com
On behalf of our children and partners, Follow us on Instagram Paul Somerville
