A little more than a year ago, Juanito did something that lots of people do all the time: he contacted our Sponsor Services department, wanting to sponsor a child. Then, about six months later, he wanted to sponsor a second child.
Juanito made one of many dreams come true by coming to the United States.
The thing that makes his story a little different from most is the fact that Juanito was himself a sponsored child. Now living in northern California with a steady job, he decided it was time to give back. The following, with very little editing, are his words, which he sent to us unsolicited…thinking we might be interested in his perspective.
He was right.
I was born in Guatemala – in the middle of a civil war that lasted 36 years – in perhaps one of the poorest communities in the country. We were an indigenous family.
From a very young age, I worked. I remember following my father all over the place when he went to work. He planted corn, potatoes and beans. I did the same as him, even though I was a little slower.
The first day I went to school was unforgettable. I wasn’t as excited as I should have been; I was scared. For my parents, it surely was a very special day. I remember that they dressed me in all new clothes, and it wasn’t easy to get new clothes in those times. It was typical Guatemalan indigenous clothing, embroidered by my mother. I went to school in the mornings, and worked in the afternoons until night.
Sponsorship helped me a lot…school supplies, clothing, health care and food. What seems like a small thing here can make a big difference in the life of a family who is so poor. And there were families even poorer than us!
The school supplies are expensive. For me, it was an obligation for me to go to school since I was a sponsored child. My father wasn’t going to let someone in another country spend his money on a boy who didn’t want to study.
When I finished elementary school, my father sent me to secondary school. As I was trying to finish my studies, a situation occurred that transformed my town: In 1998, Hurricane Mitch hit Central America hard. Our entire town flooded because we lived in between the mountains and the rivers. Everything was lost, including homes, schools, a good part of the crops that had been planted. Everything! So, the entire town moved to a safer location. I kept studying, but then I had to take classes outdoors. The wind stirred up a lot of dust; it was almost impossible to study.
But I eventually graduated and was able to continue my studies, earning credentials as a bilingual teacher. Being able to go to school wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a sponsor, and that’s what planted the little seed of thought in my head to one day be able to help someone like they were doing for me.
After years of struggling to find steady work in the States, Juanito has a good job as a cook at a restaurant in northern California.
I was unable to find a job as a teacher, but I continued volunteering even after I graduated from sponsorship. A few years after graduating, I was hanging out with my friends and we were thinking about going to look for work in Guatemala City, but then somebody said, “Why don’t we go to the United States?” It was in jest. It was a joke! But we ended up making the journey with nothing more than hope and a dream of being able to help our families out of poverty.
When I got to the United States, I was homeless. I took jobs washing plates, working construction, whatever I could. One day when I was working, I met a man who sponsored with Children International. Up until then I had always believed that sponsors were people with a lot of money, but I realized that they aren’t people with big wallets; they are people with big hearts.
And that’s how the idea of being able to help change the life of a child was reignited in me. I wanted to give back some of the help that had been given to me. It’s been a few years since then and now I have a job as a cook, a place to live, a lot of friends. So I thought to myself that it was time to make that dream of helping one child, two children – as many children as I could – a reality. And I did!
Now I say that my life has more meaning. In a way, I feel fulfilled as a person. But it’s a feeling, something that I can’t explain with words. I encourage all of our children and youth to keep moving forward, to not give up because anything in life is possible. Limits only exist in your head. I was sponsored, and now I’m a sponsor. Isn’t that a great thing?
By sponsoring a child, we don’t just change the life of a child, but also the life of a family and even entire communities, because what may seem small here can make a big difference in the life of a needy person. That’s not just something I heard or read somewhere. I say it because I lived it. Someone transformed my life. I hope this isn’t just the happy ending to my story; I hope that this is just the beginning of something even greater.
