I'm warning you, this post is a little longer than most, but it tells an important part of my first journey to Cusco, Peru in March 2018. My trip and the people I got to meet helped me see how much I have and how even a little can go SUCH a long way for someone else. There were several "someones" that touched my heart during the week I spent volunteering at a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Cusco, Peru. But the one I am writing about today really stood out, a a young woman named Ruth Karina who stole my heart.
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| My, Ruth Karina (with the baby on her back) and my friend, Lee |
Her story in a quick nutshell....
She was forced to leave her family in a rural area at the age of 11 because they couldn't feed her. Yes, 11. She worked at a restaurant in a small village and enrolled in school. She loves numbers and always had the dream of becoming an accountant. She had nothing, and when she met a young man and became pregnant at the age of 16, she was hopeful that this would be the family she had always wanted. He told her she could come and live with him and his family in Cusco. So she came right before she delivered her beautiful baby girl, but the father of the baby abandoned her at the hospital. After trying to gain acceptance into his family home, a lot of fighting, and him threatening to kill the baby, she ended up for a night on the street, under a bridge with a one-month old baby. (I cannot imagine...)
She was terrified and sought help from a taxi driver who (thank God) took her to authorities who connected her with the shelter. She arrived just a week or so before I did.
She wants to work, wants to finish school and still has dreams. Her will to thrive and her joy and thankfulness was like medicine for me. I have not ever experienced anything like that.
I am committed to supporting her for the next year, at least, so that she can finish secondary school and maybe even pursue University. There is absolutely no pressure, of course, but I wanted to invite you all to join me to help Ruth Carina and her baby Yhandy.
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| Shopping - I had to do all the heavy lifting! I got to hold sweet baby Yhandy all afternoon. |
It was just so impactful for me to be with her and get to know her! I can't not help her. I took her shopping while I was there and bought her two pairs of jeans, a good winter coat, new socks and underwear, a couple of t-shirts and a new pair of shoes -- I literally lost track of how many times she said "Muchas Gracias." It was heartfelt and deep. She was truly overwhelmed.
I was corresponding with her a couple of days later on Google Translate on my phone. She wrote and told me that the day we went shopping was the best of her entire life. I teared up. I was sure that it probably was, and that broke my heart.
There is no welfare mindset there -- no sense of entitlement -- just warmth, thankfulness and a will to work for a better life. That is an investment I can get behind.
