Voices Beyond The Wall (DVD)

Founded twenty-five years ago in San Pedro Sula, a Central American city infamous for its poverty and violence, Our Little Roses is the only girls' orphanage in Honduras. Seventy girls, ages one to eighteen, have found refuge there from broken and destitute homes, murderous streets, and the neighboring Bordo, the worst slum in the Americas.Inside twenty-foot high concrete walls topped with barb wire, they receive medical attention, food, shelter, and the nurturing care of a vibrant and entirely female collective of other Desechables.

This documentary explores this question: how do those subjected to the most profound trauma and rejection begin to heal themselves and change the course of their lives? It bears witness to the catharsis that occurs when marginalized adolescent girls are encouraged to find their voices, in poetry and their own words.

In the winter of 2012, Spencer Reece, an award-winning American poet and Episcopal priest, came to live at the home for a year. On a Fulbright grant to teach the girls poetry and help them create a book of their own work, he found himself immersed in a profoundly challenging environment. His attempts to teach the girls were largely rebuffed--poetry is too difficult, personal, and boring, they insist. Who would want to read about their lives anyway? Oh and Padre, we don't like the words 'orphan' or 'orphanage.' We call ourselves Chavas. And we call this place home.