My dream... is their future

A father's Poor Health is hard on the family

El Llano community is located 136 km to south west from the capital, the community welcomes around 70 families that are already set in the area. It has electricity and the water they get usually comes from artisan well, done by the families.

The Vivas Rivera family is one of those 70 families. Santos Beningo Vivas and Santos Eusebia Rivera, father and mother of this family, are both 37 years old. They have two children Elmer -15 years old- and Wendy Aracely, 9 years old.

This family faces some problems; the father suffers a very bad illness on his kidneys – a year ago when he went to the hospital and has a very bad crisis he stayed over a month, after that time he was diagnosed with kidney insufficiency, nowadays he visits the hospital every two months and he is not able to work.

 “I was sad in my heart and it's my own shame, of course but what could I do?

Due to this hard situation Elmer was not able to attend school last year. “I was sad in my heart and it's my own shame, of course but what could I do? I didn’t have the money to get him ready with uniform and his notebooks, he [Elmer] was the one who helped with his dad,” shares Santos Eusebia, with sad eyes.

a dream for her family

A normal day starts at 5am for Santos Eusebia, who besides working on the daily chores at home, she is an artisan, during the week she works to shape and dry the pottery and then on weekends she fires the pieces.

“Generally I [make] 25- 30 dozen in two weeks, a dozen costs around C$ 35-40 (approximately US $1.50) they pay me every two weeks once they sell it in market; this is for the family´s expenses, I am the one who works,” expresses Santos Eusebia.  

Her daughter, Wendy is going to 5th grade, the school is some steps away from her house, once she finishes her primary school she will change school and will walk around 5 km away. Wendy would like become a doctor, she mentions with a shy smile.

“I like math, and I like going to school. My dream is to have a bike,”

 “I like math, and I like going to school. My dream is to have a bike,” says Wendy, while she sees her mom shaping some pieces and then smiles shyly.

As Santos Benigna works every day, her only dream is “to prepare my children so they are ready for future”, expressed in simple but deep words. She thinks education is their only hope to get better in life.

She hopes she can register Elmer at school, he would attend 8th grade, he works hard every day to help his mom, “today he is selling out in the community some tomatoes he bought, he is so young, but I know he tries to look for something,” adds Santos Benigna.

World Vision has begun to work with  families like Wendy's, to assess the needs of the community, and to come with a plan for the future.