Our Beginning

The nutritional center began in September, 1987 after the loss of our first child. Karla Francisca Salmeron was given to us by El Salvador's Department of Child Welfare to provide foster care. She was a critically malnourished baby girl who was gravely ill. Karla was fourteen months old and weighed only nine pounds. Upon receipt of this beautiful nine pound baby, we placed her in the finest private pediatric hospital in San Salvador in order to save her life. For the next two and a half weeks, Julie remained by her side giving her the love and nourishment she had been deprived of in her short life.

After two and a half weeks, believing that Karla had seen the worst of her sickness, Julie and I left the hospital for dinner. As we arrived at our apartment, we received a call from the hospital that Karla had passed away. Early the next morning, we took her body back to the same orphanage she had come from. We were asked to take another child. His name was José Vidal Cruz, four months old and weighing six pounds.

Realizing from these experiences that there were hundreds if not thousands of babies in the same situation as Karla, we founded the Love Link, Inc., a non-profit, tax exempt organization supported by churches and caring individuals. Karla was the seed that brought our awareness to the infant's plight in this country. Our goal is to provide love, proper food, and physical therapy for the nutritional, physical, and spiritual restoration of the babies up to two years of age. The hundreds of babies who have passed through our center have left completely restored to their families or to legal guardians. We've only lost eight babies due to the ravages of malnutrition. Four of these babies died within the first 24 hours of admission. Our pediatrician, Dr. Rafael Ruiz who was trained in pediatric malnutrition at Stanford University in California, has stated that clearly 85 percent of the babies would have died without the care received in our center. Our reward for the services we provide is knowing that the child will survive. The effects upon the family members have turned from dismay and sadness to jubilant expectation and hope. This sense of restoration has affected family members, friends, and the small communities they live in. Occasionally, we have received chickens, papayas, and oranges from grateful parents. Generally, we keep the fruit, but will return the chickens for the welfare of the family.

Sam & Julie Hawkins