As a teenager, Jennifer Thompson traveled to Russia with her parents, filled with excitement. She was to meet her new sister, Emma Liza, whom the family was adopting. But the trip to the crowded, impoverished orphanage left a stark impression that quickly turned into a global mission.

"Before I knew it, I was in Russia eight times and I was visiting orphanages in Mongolia, China and Mexico," said Ms. Thompson, now 21 and preparing to head to Bolivia to launch an orphanage. "I was so moved to see children in overcrowded rooms without shoes, clothes or toys, things we have so much of," she said. "I was hooked."

She began with a simple collection of shoes, clothes and toys among her friends providing aid through Buckner International Services for Children and her church, Lighthouse Christian Fellowship in Prosper. That has blossomed into an effort to raise $50,000 to launch Casa de Amor House of Love a Bolivian orphanage that will accompany a new hospital being built next door. Ms. Thompson had read an article about a Kansas physician's assistant named Michael Wawrzewski III, the founder of Hospitals of Hope. Mr. Wawrzewski's next hospital was to be in Bolivia. She wanted to help and wrote to him asking what she could do. After he wrote back of mothers dying during childbirth and leaving their children homeless, she was soon on a plane to Bolivia with her father to volunteer at a Hospital of Hope clinic in Vinto.

Jennifer Thompson befriends a child at an orphanage near St. Petersburg, Russia

Mr. Wawrzewski called a few months later with plans to build an orphanage next to his new hospital in Cochabamba. The Thompsons envisioned a facility that could care for up to 10, and eventually 20, babies waiting to be adopted. The city has more than 5,000 children living on the streets or in orphanages, Ms. Thompson said. Ms. Thompson will help start the Casa de Amor orphanage on this site in Bolivia. She soon called friends in McKinney and has raised about $8,000 in the last few months. A fund-raiser is planned for October. "We feel very blessed that Jennifer chose to work alongside us to help the needy in Bolivia," Mr. Wawrzewski said. Ms. Thompson hopes construction can begin next month and the facility completed within about six months. When it is, she plans to temporarily relocate to Bolivia to oversee the hiring and training of the caregivers. She has a compassion for children," Mr. Wawrzewski said. "It's not a fleeting desire. She has been driven for some time."

Ms. Thompson, who was home-schooled with her three sisters, is learning Spanish, while teaching English to non-native speakers at the McKinney Public Library. Eventually, she envisions having her own family, and life as a wife and mother well-prepared for the role from her experiences with children in other countries.

"I never want to stop learning," she said. "And I never want to stop helping others."

How to Help
McKinney resident Jennifer Thompson has made a mission of helping orphans around the globe. She is trying to raise about $50,000 to start an orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

A charity photo shoot will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 4 at Wendolin Mercado's North Light Studio in the Antique Company Mall at 213 E. Virginia St. in McKinney. Proceeds from photo sittings and packages will benefit the orphanage.

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