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Friday, 22 June 2007 |
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Sr. Carol is a staff member at AMANECER, an orphanage network in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She is involved in the Saint Louis sponsored program, Pan y Amor.
We hope that each of you is well. Be assured that we are remembering you in prayer. We’d like to let you know what we have been able to accomplish in benefit of some of young boys of “Casa Wiñay”. Wiñay is a Quechua word which means TO GROW.
With space for 24 residents, the second level of the Amanecer program, offers integrated attention to socially disadvantaged boys from 6 to 12 years old by way of interventions in the areas of education, health, psychology, formation and training in social habits. This work is designed to help guarantee the integration of the child into his family and society. Using education, work and recreation we try to better their life situations and encourage adequate behaviours. The psychological methods used treat both the individual problems of the boys as well as the common characteristics such as abandonment, physical abuse, experience living in the streets, and the rejection from both family as well as society.
We’d like to tell you about a little bit of the history of one of the boys who is with us: Pedro is a child from a disintegrated family with few economic resources. The parents are alcoholics. Pedro went to school but abandoned his studies in order to help support the family. One day he went to the streets to earn his daily bread but did not return home. He began to live in the streets of Cochabamba, in spite of inclement conditions. He earned a living playing the zampoña, singing, cleaning tomb markers in the cemetery and other ways he could think of to survive. He could not attend school in such conditions and without personal documents. For a long time Pedro lost hope of ever studying again; he could only dream and watch other children as they happily went to school. But one day he found a home where he could live with dignity, “Amanecer-Wiñay”. Here he began a process of motivation to get stabilized. Pedro had a difference between his biological and chronological age of 4 years. The educational and psychological help he received were important tools to help break through the barriers he experienced. Pedro was given the opportunity to reinitiate his studies and return to school. The results were optimal since he was able to adapt to the demands of formal education once again.
In “Wiñay” Pedro not only found a place to live with dignity and to study, but he also found love and protection. The lost hopes and dreams became a reality. Like Pedro there are many children in Amanecer who find new challenges.
In spite of the difficult and unprotected world in which our children are immersed it is admirable to see the love of God and the means God uses to protect and love His preferred: the poor. You are instruments of Our Lord so that we can continue realizing the work which was begun years ago by Sr. Stephanie Murray and which today is converted into the challenge for those of us caring for these children.
We wish you LOVE and PEACE in the Lord.
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