A Light House in Sandy Bay

Bay Islands’ Only Children Home

After decades of service, Majken Broby Children’s Home in Gravel’s Bay closed its doors in 2023.  Bay Islands now has only one children’s home – Greenfields Children’s Home in Sandy Bay, and it’s easy to miss. 
Its signage and a steep driveway are located on a curve, and usually marked by two orange cones placed on the dividing line of the main road in Sandy Bay. It has a sign next to a metal gate that’s says “Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries.” The site consists of three parts: there is the Greenfield’s Children’s Home, a Beacon Christian School, and a mission center for volunteer groups.
Most of the children at the children’s home come from complicated, sad, and sometimes tragic backgrounds. 

“When kids come to us, they come through bad situations – all kinds of abuse,” said Orsy Cruz, the onsite director of the home. “We see the families split and neither the mother nor the father wants to be responsible for the kids.”
Orsy, originally from Sandy Bay, has been involved in the ministry since 2005. In 2008, he became the onsite director, while his wife Vanessa took on the role of administrator.
The garden around the school is full of fruit trees: breadfruits, mangoes, and bananas. It is a like an island sanctuary where a child can heal, grow, and experience their first steps 
in life. 

Childrens Home

When the project began, there were a couple mishaps. From 2002-2004 it was a run by Brad Warren, an American who operated child sponsorship international from the site. Eventually, after a scandal, Warren left the island in 2004 for Kenya where he became involved in another child sponsorship international operation. “When we started, we had to start all over again. We had to pay for the property,” said Orsy. “It was a bad start.” Orsy believes that God eventually helped things to settle down and thrive.

Currently, there are 24 people working at the Sandy Bay Lighthouse: 11 staff working at the Children’s home, 12 teachers, a dentist, and a part time psychologist.

Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries provides opportunities for children and the community in general. Greenfields Children’s Home also helps children transition to independent young adulthood. At 14-15 years of age they can go to a high school, and Orsy has an agreement with Methodist High School in Coxen Hole. Typically, they spend two-three years studying at Methodist High School in Coxen Hole. The home also helps with arranging internships for the teenagers and getting them valuable work experience.

Another program at the orphanage is called 18 plus, and gives the young adults an opportunity to pursue studies at a university. In 2025, two young adults are enrolled in the program and attending university.
The children’s home has a capacity to accommodate 24 boys and 24 girls. “We have always between 20 and 30 kids,” say Orsy.

“We have helped over 400 kids since we have been here.” Some of these children spent a day or two at the home, others spent many years.

While the only children’s home in the Bay Islands is in Sandy Bay, La Ceiba has three private children’s homes. Secretaría de la Niñez, Adolescencia y Familia [SENAF] runs a children’s center in La Mosquitia. SENAF is the entity in charge of children’s welfare in Honduras. “Government has a few children homes, but they are the worst,” says Orsy. “They are always involved in corruption.”

The whole island benefits from this place.

The Honduran government is the watchdog – in principle at least – who looks after the welfare of children in the country. It makes sure the accredited children facilities fulfill certain requirements and keep minimum standards. The Honduran government typically doesn’t provide funding for children in private children’s homes.

The Greenfields Children’s Home has outlived two government agencies responsible for child welfare in Honduras. In the early 2000s, INFA was in operation, later replaced by DINAF, and today the government entity is known as CENAF… In Honduras, CENAF is the legal authority that can move children away from a family’s custody, based on documented abuse or neglect

Private children’s homes in Honduras typically do not receive monetary support from the government, with one exception during Juan Orlando Hernández’s several-year presidency During 2014-2022, the Sandy Bay children’s homes were receiving around 8% of their budget from the government. “As soon as this government [Xiomara Castro] took over, they eliminated [the support],” said Orsy.

Beacon School

The school attended by the children of the home is just a few meters away. It is a smart, two-story concrete building located just below the children’s home. The Christian school is called Beacon and is run by 13 teachers.

Approximately 140 to 150 children from Sandy Bay attend the Beacon School, where they each receive a scholarship that makes education more affordable. “They pay 30-35% of what they would be pay at a regular private school,” says Orsy.

The Beacon school has opportunities for the children to learn about the environment around them and business skills. One of these projects is tilapia farm. The 12 tilapia pools are located above the school and produce fish that are then sold to locals. “It’s a project that teaches older girls and boys how to run a business,” says Orsy. The fish are grown, fed, and harvested, and then sold to buyers in the community. It is a bilingual Christian school, and 13 teachers work here.

Outreach Ministries

Now in early March, the grounds of the orphanage are humming with the enthusiasm of the volunteers who made their way here to help for a week. One such volunteer and board member is Don Shire, a professional musician from the United States. Shire’s adventure with Roatan began almost by accident, in 2002. “I came here on a cruise ship looking to do mission work with a group,” said Shire. “I was looking for opportunities to serve.” During his island visit, Shire visited Glenn Solomon Children’s home in Gravels Bay. It was there he learned that the island needed another place for neglected children.

Honduran government typically doesn’t provide funding.

He is a professional trumpet player who does concerts in churches all over the world. He sometimes meets people after his concerts who want to serve. “I recruit in my concerts people who want to come serve,” says Shire.

Shire makes a statement that can sum up the entire project. “The whole island benefits from this place being here,” he says. Shire is one of eleven board of directors members, most of them American and Canadian. He also helps in orphanages in India, Haiti, and Ukraine.

The whole island benefits from this place.

A team of volunteers will typically spend a week on the island. They often help out with construction projects or in the gardens. Other times, they drive to outlying communities to evangelize and visit poor communities around Roatan, giving away bags of groceries to those in need… The master plan is to have one mission group per community, all the way to Oak Ridge. In 2025, the organization is expecting 20 volunteer groups that come for a week to contribute their skills and enthusiasm.

The intention is to help, and the mission groups do so by donating groceries, building bunk beds, repairing roofs, and doing general home repairs for those in dire need. The volunteer program is affiliated with three Protestant churches in the United States along with individual donors who provide the much needed donations that keep the place operating.

The baseball field portion of the property was turned into mission housing, and there is an adjacent dental clinic that not only tends to the children but offers affordable dental care service to islanders. “We are not a business. We are interested in serving the community,” says Orsy.