Jeni Weston was shocked at what she saw. Babies and young children were laying before her, their little bodies stricken with malnutrition; their eyes were pools of emptiness; their abandonment obvious.

“They didn’t have anybody,” Weston said. “They didn’t know how to cuddle, smile or play, but when we started hugging, loving, and playing with them, their personalities just popped out.”

Weston, a senior from Rockland, Idaho, is one of many students who spent four and a half months in Cuenca, Ecuador, as part of the Orphanage Support Services Organization, a non-profit charitable organization.

Many students at BYU-Idaho have sacrificed their time, money and education to live in foreign countries for months at a time, in hopes of making a difference in lives of children.

Weston had a wonderful experience volunteering and chose to sacrifice money earned for school to go to Ecuador again as well as Haiti.

“I craved serving them so much, that’s why I went back. You saw the change in their faces. You saw them from being these little no life, no personality, human beings, and all of a sudden they became children ... just because of love.”

Rex Head, director of OSSO, and former doctor at BYU-I’s Health Center, started the program six and a half years ago, and was searching for ways to help orphanages five years before that.

“It started after we adopted our son Jacob,” Head said. “ We were struck by the fact that a lot of kids need parents. We started looking at how we could help in orphanages.”

OSSO has had around 1,000 volunteers go to Ecuador in the last six years. Of those, 300 to 400 have been students from either BYU or BYU-I, and the very first group to go were students from Ricks College, Head said.

Stacie Tryk, a senior from Rigby, Idaho, had a uplifting experiences when she heard about the International Language Programs and decided to spend four months in Russia, teaching English to young children.

“Initially, it was harder than I thought it would be,” Tryk said. “The biggest thing it did for me was open my mind to be a lot less judgmental and be aware with what is going on in the world and with people.”