Just Because We Care, a charity founded and run by Bob and Diane Wamhoff, is a part of the life and culture of Wamhoff Financial Planning & Accounting Services. In the office, you’ll be greeted by large photos of smiling faces, and images that show the work and progress that has been made through the organization’s efforts.
Just Because was founded in 2003 after Diane Wamhoff made a trip to a small mountain village in Honduras called Guaymitas. A Sister took Diane and another local woman, Judith Suarez, to visit a school for girls. What they found on the mountain was despair. Children were eating grass and mud because they had no food. Malnutrition was threatening the lives of many. The Sister told Diane and Judith that if the school could build a kitchen, the government would provide a grant for rice and beans to feed the children. Diane immediately raised her hand and, without hesitation, said “I’ll build the kitchen.”
A year later, Diane visited the mountain to see how the children were doing. The kitchen had been built, but the government did not come through on the grant for food. The children were still starving, and several were not expected to live much longer. Once again, Diane raised her hand and said “I’ll feed the children”, and immediately went into town to buy food, pots, pans, and everything the school would need to feed the children for a period of time. Once home in the US, Bob and Diane began having fundraisers and enlisting the help of friends to care for the children on the mountain. Back in Honduras, Judith Suarez (a nurse and attorney by trade) and her family became the on-the-ground administrators of the school and nutritional programs.
Since 2003, their dedication has led to remarkable progress on the mountain:
- Expansion of the original elementary school which has increased enrollment from 72 to 132 and led to average grades of 92%, up from 70%.
- Establishment of a school program to feed all children four days per week.
- Implementation of a nutritional program for toddlers not yet in school to provide them food.
- Building a vocational school for high school aged children to continue their education and gain skills to obtain jobs.
- Creation of a computer lab for instruction on computers and internet technology.
- Installation of a generator to provide electricity to the school, and satellite internet service to make computer classes possible.
- Establishment of a scholarship program to send the top three members of each class to high school. In December 2010, the first scholarship students graduated from high school and are moving on to college. One of the graduates was one of the first children Diane met on the mountain, who, without Just Because’s intervention, would have died of malnutrition years ago.
- Building of five houses for families on the mountain.
- Construction of a playground and upgrade of the mountain’s community center to include electricity and new bathrooms.
The efforts of Just Because have changed the mountain, and are working towards breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty. Yet many challenges still remain. The price of food has nearly doubled over the last year, and new taxes imposed by the government have made the organization’s ability to feed the children more difficult. There is much more work to be done, and Just Because is committed to serving the people of the mountain. For more information on Just Because, please visit www.justbecausewecare.com.
