The children at El Buen Pastor number 30 to 40. The number can change rapidly should the police appear with a family of several children who were removed from an abusive or dangerous situation. When they arrive they have lost looks on their faces. Pain in their eyes. You can't tell how much hell they might have had to go through, but you can guess. But in a couple of days they are smiling and playing with the other kids and having fun and fitting right in. Kids adjust, and that is a good thing.

Most of the children are not orphans in the truest sense of the word. In some cases, parents are in prison, in some cases children have been removed from the family home due to abuse, and in other cases the family simply cannot provide for the child(ren). In every instance, the children are at the Casa through no fault of their own. Because the children may have parents or other extended family, the children are not adoptable. Some parents visit their children on occasion; others never do, so each situation is unique. It is truly amazing how adaptable these children are.

The children may range in age from infants to 18 years of age. Some children literally "grow up" at El Buen Pastor. This is their home and the other children are their brothers and sisters; it functions as a family. At the orphanage the kids have a since of belonging as there is order and discipline and rules. Kids like to know where they stand and what is expected out of them.