Padre William B. Wasson, founder of NPH

"Bringing hope and dignity into the lives of those who feel helpless and abandoned is one of the most generous and inspiring tasks one can dedicate one's life to."
- Padre William B. Wasson (1923 - 2006)

Padre William B. Wasson was born on December 21, 1923 in Phoenix, Arizona. He was always concerned with the needs of the poor. He graduated in law and social sciences from the University of Santa Barbara, California. He then traveled to Mexico, where he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Cuernavaca in 1953. Soon afterwards, he founded a day care center for poor children. A year later, he got a boy out of prison who had stolen collection money from the offering box because he was hungry. Father Wasson took the boy into his care, along with eight others who were in his cell. That was the beginning of "Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos™" (NPH), Spanish for OUR LITTLE BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

• What we do

  • health

  • education

  • Nutrition and Sustainability

  • neighborhood-help

  • Children with disabilities

  • Children's Hospital St. Damien

  • Where we work

How it all began...

It all started in August 1954 with a street boy in Mexico who had stolen money from the offering box in Father Wasson's church to satisfy his hunger. Father Wasson asked if he could take the boy in to keep him out of prison. The next day, the juvenile court judge sent more children into his care, a week later there were already eight, and by the end of the year, 32 street children were living with him. Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos™ (NPH), Spanish for "OUR LITTLE BROTHERS AND SISTERS", was born.

More than 20,000 children have found a home in our family so far. Children's villages have now been set up in eight other countries: In Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Peru and Bolivia. At present, around 2,500 children can grow up in this loving and protected environment.

The volunteer program

The NPH volunteer program offers various opportunities to get involved. We invite people from a wide range of educational backgrounds to get involved in helping orphaned or homeless children to live with dignity. The most important requirements are a willingness to integrate into the community and an open heart and mind.

Our program offers volunteers a variety of professional, personal and intercultural experiences that are hard to find elsewhere. For us, the volunteers are extremely important as support for our employees and as caregivers for our children.

Our volunteers have the opportunity to use their skills and knowledge to help others. We often have highly qualified people who we could hardly pay for or who would not even be available in the country itself. In addition, the volunteers always bring new ideas and perspectives with them, which, when working with our employees on site, prove helpful in accomplishing our daily tasks.

• How to help

  • Donate

  • volunteering

  • Will

  • sponsorship

Thanks to your help, in 2024...

... over 5,200 children and young people were trained, 300 young people graduated from our workshops and vocational schools.

... helped over 70,000 families from the surrounding area as part of our neighbourhood programs.

... lovingly cared for around 400 children and adults living with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities at NPH.

... help 55,700 women and children in our St. Damien Children's Hospital in Haiti.

... provide over 18,000 medical consultations in our health centers.

Office and foundation headquarters: Altenhofstrasse 46, 8008 Zurich
Management Switzerland: Mr. Guido Mühlemann
Auditors: PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, St. Gallen
Supervisory authority: Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations ESA
Member of proFonds, the umbrella organization for charitable foundations in Switzerland