Our History — Luminarias

OUR HISTORY

Hugh McElroy made his first trip to Guatemala in 2001, shortly after his retirement with the multinational conglomerate, 3M, in Minnesota. He would continue traveling between the U.S. and Guatemala for the next 23 years as he established Casa Luminarias in San Lucas Sacatepéquez, a city of 21,000 people located ten miles from the capital, Guatemala City.

In those early years, Hugh would spend months at a time serving at NPH - a very large children’s home in Guatemala whose staff cared for hundreds of children. It was early in his experience of working with youth in Guatemala that Hugh realized the need for the children to build relationships with role models who were willing to listen to their stories, support them during hard times, and to encourage their holistic future development.

He decided to pay for a new staff person to serve as a year-round social worker for the children in the home to help them maintain positive and mentoring relationships. This one step served as a catalyst for what has now grown into a vibrant community of young women, destined to influence Guatemala and the world beyond – Casa Luminarias.

Hugh took a deep and profound interest in developing positive character traits among the children of the orphanage. He was intentional in having messages that encouraged integrity, honor, earnestness, kindness, compassion, hard work, determination, and faith.

His time in Guatemala opened his eyes to the needs of the girls of Guatemala who endured the greatest hardships of poverty and received far less educational and career development opportunities than boys did in the male-dominated culture. In 2013 he rented a home in Jardines De San Lucas 4 – a secure, gated community in the city of San Lucas Sacatepéquez, a city of 21,000 people located ten miles from the capital, Guatemala City. The intention was to provide a home for girls from impoverished families where their education, food, clothing, and housing costs were covered and skilled staff would be available to guide and help support these girls.

The program’s success and effectiveness eventually grew to the point that a home was built to provide a setting for all activities and services. Between 2018 and 2019, a new building was constructed in the same neighborhood - Jardines De San Lucas 4. The facility itself is 23,000 square feet and includes two levels, complete with outdoor and indoor recreation areas, meeting rooms, cooking areas and living rooms.

Built in a U-shape, one wing has over 15 private guest rooms, another wing houses 16 girls in the program, while the center section is available for up to 12 university students who come at various intervals to be involved with mentoring the girls in the program.

As the program has grown and expanded, it has allowed girls who successfully complete the high school program to be sponsored during their university years. They no longer live at Casa Luminiarias but they benefit from the ‘extended family’ concept and most maintain very close ties with the main program activities. This university program began in 2019. The vast majority of the University students now take their courses at San Carlos University, which most consider to be the highest-quality university in Guatemala.