Name: Jesus Alejandro

Status: Orphaned as a toddler and abandoned at the age of seven

Hometown: La Ceiba, Honduras

Update: Fourteen-year-old Jesus Alejandro has no intention of returning to life on the streets of San Pedro Sula.

After being forced from his home at the age of seven, the next seven years of his life on the streets would be marked by hunger and substance abuse—but no longer.

Jesus Alejandro is one of countless vulnerable children who have been forced to live on the streets of Honduras, alone and hungry. But today, thanks to volunteers from Mision Rescate (Rescue Mission) who invited him to live at their shelter permanently, he has traded in the rough, concrete city sidewalks for a real bed with warm blankets and given up the drugs he needed to dull his hunger pangs in exchange for three meals a day.

He is even going to school and is making plans for his future.

“Before, I did not have a place to have some food, and now, I am going to school and about to graduate from sixth grade,” he said. “Thank God and you for all your help.”

Making Change: At least two nights a week, volunteers from Mision Rescate hit the streets, building relationships with the children they meet. Their mission is to help these children by rehabilitating them physically and psychologically. Operation Blessing supports Mision Rescate with food, learning materials, medication, sports supplies, and more. Already, several boys who had been living on the streets have successfully completed the rehabilitation and restoration program and some have even reintegrated back into their families. Some of the boys, like Jesus Alejandro, want to use their experiences to reach others on the street.

“Neither myself nor my friends would think of wasting this opportunity,” he said.

Did you know: An estimated 20,000 children are living on the streets of Honduras, many of them in San Pedro Sula. These children can earn up to $20 a day washing windows, shining shoes, selling candy and begging for money. Most of the money however is spent on alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs to numb their physical and emotional pain. In fact, an estimated 90 percent of street children in Honduras struggle with substance abuse.