Tony and Laura Lewry

The Idea behind Triage is to asses and aid those who wish to come to Hope House. We asses their willingness to change, because, that is the main thing that we want to see. We understand that life is a journey and sometimes the road is harder for some more than others. Some of our boys have had a hard road and made wrong choices, but their willingness to want to change their future and make good short term decisions is the first thing that we need to see happen. Then if they seem to be willing we help them get off whatever substance they are addicted to ( if we can!) help them learn to live with routine and start to respect the people that will have some authority in their lives ( the last one is ongoing!) So for the last few months we have been asking boys of the right age, who we have relationship with on the street if they are ready to leave. We have some we are close. We also have some that we have been asked to consider from other avenues, some with such bad home lives that stre...

Today after dropping my car off to have some work done on the electrics I had to come back home on a "combi" which is a 1960s VW camper converted into a minibus. In the UK we would allow about 9 passengers in a vehicle like this but here things are a bit more flexible. Today's combi had 21 passengers which isn't unusual but some of them where quite big!! The combi was so full that the door fell off!! Fortunately it only took a few minuets to fix the door as we where all still squashed in like sweaty sardines!!

Just another Boa Constrictor!!

Little by little the factory is coming together. Sometimes it feels like I spend more time trying to nurture a good attitude towards work in the boys than actually building, but that's OK our aim is to invest into them not just build a factory. Nevertheless we are building and we have been working on the roof.   As you can see we have a roof!! Now for the last bit of cabling, some lights, security cameras, and I think we will be ready to bring the block machine down and start production. So far we have spent over £10,000 and  have about £5,000 more to spend to complete the factory. Once the factory is running it will be financially self sustaining, giving employment to up to 8 ex-street boys and we may even be in the position to financially support other projects here, like Hope House. If any of you amazing people would like to give towards the start up cost of this project then please do let me know!! Thanx.

This morning I did a little sewing to fix Beto's t-shirt. Over the last few months I have sewn his football gloves several times (he loves to be goal keeper!!), some trousers and now this t-shirt, its just a little thing to show we care. It is amazing to see how much of an impact this has had on him. Hopefully things like this, which are taken for granted in most families, will give him a better perspective of how things could be when he has a family of his own. We are fixing more than just clothes. T.

Check out our new facebook page which will inform you of all the current activities if our restoration projects https://www.facebook.com/RestorationRecife