Daniela

Her Hospital Uniform

We have been so blessed to watch Daniela thriving at her new school.  She started in January, and her first grades have been very encouraging.  Going to a private high school, where the education level is much higher, has been very challenging to Daniela.  She has had to work harder than she ever has before.  There are two different types of high schools in El Salvador.  One is a regular, general studies type of school.  The students only attend two years there, and then graduate.  The other type of high school is a three year, technical high school. Here, the children have the option of choosing two or three different tracks of study.  One of those is a medical track, where the student’s course of study is focused on preparing them for a possible career in the medical field.  This is the type of school where we have Daniela, and she is studying on the medical track. 

Showing off some of her schoolwork

Daniela lives with her mom, Nelsi, her daughter, Fernanda (5), and her three little sisters.  When Daniela returns home about 7:00pm after a long day at school, she has hours of homework she still has to accomplish.  However, she also has much to do to help her mother at home, besides coming home to care for her own daughter.  Her mom makes and sells food to earn money to put food on the table.  Of course with no running water, and no kitchen, this is a very big challenge every day.  She cooks over wood, and has to bring up her water from a well. (Which usually has dead things floating in it)  The house has one room, with very few pieces of old, worn, dirty furniture.   Taking a ‘bath’ means scooping up water from the pila, outside (large stone basin that has been filled by hand with water from the well) and pouring it over your head. 

Her Standard School Uniform

Nothing is easy, everything takes much more work than those of us from the U.S. are used to.  Imagine bathing, cooking and cleaning with these challenges.  But, regardless, when Nelsi sends her daughters to school each day, they are polished, shined, hair done in braids, and whites are really white.   When Daniela returns home from her day at school, she needs to dig in and help wherever she can.  AND, do all her homework.  She is 16 years old, and that is a lot of responsibility.  Having a daughter at 11 years of age has taken much of her childhood away.  But, Daniela’s spirit to rise above the abuse of her past is growing.  She is tasting the possibilities now that she is attending a school outside of her little town in the bigger city of Sonsonate.  

Living in a small pueblo, like San Julian, everyone knows your business. EVERYONE knew she was sexually abused by her step-father, became pregnant at age 10, and that she has now has a daughter.  But, no one in Sonsonate, at her school knows this.  She has the been given a little power over her life, now.   If she wants others to know, the power is in her own hands to tell them about herself.  She has the opportunity to just be a girl, like the rest of the girls in her school.  Not a victim.  I think that is awesome.

Her Sports Uniform

Thank you for making this possible.  If it wasn’t for your generous gifts to our work in El Salvador, this young woman would not be experiencing the opportunity for a new life.  As we continue to invest in Daniela’s life, we hope to see her go on to study at a university here in San Salvador.  We are working with a wonderful woman who is a  physiologist. (She just returned from two years serving in Senegal as a missionary to an orphanage there.)  She has started meeting with Daniela’s family, and we are hoping to see some very positive things happening through this counseling.  Please pray that Daniela will be open with her and that God will bring the healing that she so desperately needs.  This week, Daniela begins her practice in a local hospital, where she will be wearing her medical uniform, and she is very excited about that!  Please keep her in your prayers, she has so much to overcome in her life, and needs much encouragement and supernatural strength!

Kathy with Daniela, her Mom, her two youngest sisters and her daughter, Fernanda in front

Her Hospital Badge