Welcome !

By admin | Published: April 28, 2009
Thank you !

Please take a moment to wander about our website; it’s full of honest insights into who we are and what we do.

Once you’ve given us the once over, we ask that you take a step back and ask yourself three questions:

  1. Is the global orphan problem something that I care about?
  2. Do I have the ability or resources to get involved at some level?
  3. What’s stopping me ?

If your answers move you to action, we’re here to share our passion for orphan support with you.

If you stumbled upon us by accident or are not interested in orphan issues, then we wish you well and hope that you will involve yourself in some other form of charitable work.

When we began our organization and an article on our efforts hit our local paper, one blogger lambasted us for focusing on foreign countries and not on our own back yard. They feverishly proclaimed “charity begins at home.”

While we understand the sentiment, especially given the current economic climate, we disagree with that adage. At OLR, we believe that charity begins in the heart, is nurtured by the soul and only then is home and humanity bountiful.

As Bob Hope once said, “If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.”

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Orphan Host Programs – 2012

By Sam | Published: February 19, 2012

Back by popular demand, we’re once again partnering with World Links International to host orphan children from counties in Eastern Europe.

What is a host program: Well, it’s where you open your heart and your home to an orphaned child or sibling group, affording them an opportunity to travel to the United States to grow and learn from the experience.

From picnics in the park to lazy afternoons playing in the backyard, your family will have the joy of interacting with your host child, sharing with them the values and cultural aspects that help to define your family. They’ll learn about America, and you and family will learn about their country, their hopes and dreams for the future. For many, it’s a life changing experience.

If you’re up for the challenge, sharing language and meals with equal confusion then email us for a hosting packet or additional information. The photos below are some of the children who are dreaming of a host family for the 2012 summer.

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We have a HOME

By Sam | Published: February 18, 2012

While we haven’t had the open house yet, and the paint is barely dry on the interior improvements, I’m pleased to announce Orphan Logistics & Relief, Inc. now has a home of its own.

Back at the first of last year, we moved into a small warehouse at the bottom of a strip mall in Tallahassee, a move facilitated by an ever growing inventory and a desperate need for something permanent. It’s been a slow process, but when you have limited funds, growth isn’t easy.

Up to this point, as a group, we met wherever and whenever we could, which is to say rarely, and stored our mission supplies in various family members’ garages. This was in addition to our main storage locker, a ten by twelve unit that was expensive and overflowing. With no space, we were often forced to turn away donations due to lack of space. Add to this a need for workable space to repair and retrofit computers, and we needed a base of operations.

With the help of family and a gracious real estate agent, one of our members bought the property, and we set about converting it into our headquarters. We now have storage space, a computer repair lab, with some office and meeting space for mission planning. Most importantly, we didn’t use any donor funds for any part of the acquisition or build, keeping to our promise that we fund missions first and infrastructure second.

I’ll update the page with pictures and story when we do have our open house, probably as soon as we return from the March trip.

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UPDATE – Computers for Orphans

By Sam | Published: February 18, 2012

As we prepare another batch of computers to ship out, I realized we hadn’t updated the site to reflect what we’ve accomplished with our “Computers for Orphans” program, since announcing it here back in April of 2010.

Since the first donation of 10 laptops from the City of Tallahassee, we’ve purchased on our own another 130+ computers and the parts needed to retrofit them from government auctions and Ebay. The cost has been outrageous, but given the overwhelming need, we deemed the outlay critical and just ignored the bottom line.

The current batch shipping includes approximately twenty-five laptops being transported down to the Dominican Republic in continued support of our existing programs there. All will be set up when we arrive in March; however we have new program site as well, an after-school program run by Canadian Nuns who’ve been working there for over forty years.

Since going live with the program, we’ve shipped or delivered close to one hundred computers to the following locations:

In Haiti, we delivered laptops that were used to coordinate food deliveries and activities at several day camps for displaced children after the earthquake; as well as laptops for a pediatric hospital outside Port-au-Prince.

In the Dominican Republic, we delivered computers to an orphanage in San Pedro de Marcoris, additional computers to a foundation that provides free literacy programs in the Batey Consuela, and computers to an organization that teaches reading and educational skills to poor children in the slums of Santo Domingo.

Working in partnership with local churches, we supplied computers to their mission teams, for transport, training and donation to church run programs at several locations in Costa Rica; as well as computers for a privately run but church sponsored orphanage in Guatemala.

In El Salvador, we delivered the computers, ran the wires and built the desks to complete a computer lab at a large orphanage. We also provided computers to several individual teachers and others who were running programs onsite.

Recently, we supplied a computer to a foundation in Brazil that works with Jaguar rescue and indigenous peoples in the region. And in the near future, will be supplying other computers to an organization in Kenya that conducts cheetah rescue and teaches village children to be eco-tourist guides.

We’ve also started a program to retrofit and delivery computers to local children in need here at home. Utilizing donated desktop computers that are too heavy or expensive to ship, we pass on the good will of our donors to the next generation.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that gives you an idea of what we’ve done lately.

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Dominican Republic – March 12-20 2012

By Sam | Published: February 18, 2012

After a brief hiatus, our team now is gearing up for another mission trip. With a light heart and heavy bags, we’ll be headed back to the sunny isle of Hispaniola, to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

We’ll be on the ground from March 12 through 20, working on several different orphanage projects, in addition to equipping computer labs at two small after school programs in a neighboring batey/town.

I’m must say, I’m almost giddy with excitement. I haven’t smelled burning garbage nor been accosted by a street vendor since last September, when events mandated I take a quick trip to El Salvador and Guatemala. Each day my Spanish gets worse, as if that’s possible, and I’ve reverted back to drinking water from the tap. I’m losing my edge.

It’s like the opening scene in the movie Apocalypse Now, where Martin Sheen’s character is narrating a drunken diatribe on how he’s stuck in Saigon, waiting on a mission and getting weaker, while the enemy is out in the jungle getting stronger.

Well, for to many months, we’ve been stuck here at home, hampered by a lack of funding, waiting on an orphan relief mission, while our enemy, poverty, apathy, corruption and despair grows stronger in the jungle.

OK, maybe I’ve taken a broad brush of artistic license to the portrait, but regardless of manner or metaphor, were back in the game.

Wish us luck, say a prayer, or get involved.

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