How did we get involved?
In 2004 Michele Korte Capelle was introduced to Elba Herrera de Venta, a Venezuelan woman. Elba was in the United States with a priest, Father Alfredo Leon, who needed medical care. Elba was raised in a middle class family, is married and has one daughter. She also has an amazing story.
One day, years before, Elba was walking to church when she heard a sound coming from a pile of trash. The sound was an infant boy that was bitten all over by rats. The police, who heard Elba screaming, came over and told her to leave it as it was going to die anyway. Elba couldn't do that. Instead she took the little one to the hospital where it was baptized, named Jesus and given all the treatment possible. The child died but his legacy is something beyond amazing! Elba, when talking with the nurses in the hospital, found out that children were being dumped all the time. If the ones who ended up in the hospital lived, there was no one to take them anyway. They do not have orphanages, a foster care system or adoptions in Venezuela.
Some people might have just agreed about the sadness of the situation and walked away, but not Elba. Instead she told them to call her the next time a child needed a place to go. Initially she had the children she received live with her family, but eventually Elba had to find another place for them to live. The next location was a home they could use to house the children while volunteers came in shifts to care for them. In those days it was easy to get food the restaurants would have thrown away at the end of the day, and other types of help. As time went on, this became harder and harder because of the turmoil in the country. Eventually, Elba talked to the Missionaries of Charity Sisters, (the order started by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta), and they agreed to open a home for them.
By 2004, Elba had gathered over 300 children from the streets, the Sisters were taking care of them on a daily basis and Elba spent her time going around trying to find food, medicine, etc. for them. When Elba met Michele in Highland, IL in 2004, the children were only having one bowl of soup each day. Things were so bad in their country that food was hard to find and expensive. Everyone who heard of their story wanted to help in some way.
In 2006, Elba returned to the US and was once again able to spend time with Michele. Father Alfredo and another priest, Father Angel Castillo, came with her and they all got to know each
other well. This time, when they returned to Venezuela, Michele and many local friends started to do some fundraising to help the children. This lead to Michele starting Stewards of Hope International in 2008 and the rest is history. Since July 2008, over $395,164.77 (not including the thousands of boxes of rice meals, food from Food Buddies, food from Food Drives and other donated products) has been spent toward this Mission of Hope to the people in Venezuela that we serve.
