Curly-haired and handsome, Alexander Candelario Calel Valenzuela has a heart as large as they come. The fifth child to arrive at Casa, Alex came to us in 1989 from Peronia, the 'City of Thieves', where he had lived in abject poverty, abandoned by his father at birth. Sara…

"From a single parent household, his mother beat him terribly. The police took him away to another home from which he escaped. He was eventually brought here. His mother is forbidden from seeing him. His only other relative is an aunt who does not visit." While it may…