What is Guadalupe’s life like?
Guadalupe is a girl who will be 11 years old in October. She has a 22 year old brother, and lives with her mother, who is single, in a small house with a soil floor, in a countryside community, 8,800 feet above sea level. Her mother milks cows and her brother is bricklayer. Both work “al diario”, which means they don’t have a stable job. Her brother thinks education is a luxury and not important.

In the afternoons, like many children, Guadalupe watches TV and looks after the animals. Her breakfast consists of a herbal tea with popcorn. For lunch and dinner she has a soup made with potatoes, cabbage and noodles. They can only eat rice twice a week at most.

It is important to realise that these days most poor people go to great lengths to obtain a television, as it has become an essential pastime for them. The children prefer to stay at home watching TV because it is cold and rainy in the mountains. Guadalupe has only heard about her father, she has never met him and never received anything from him.

Guadalupe may dream of going abroad to work in Spain or the U.S.A when she grows up. But the reality is that such dream are very difficult for the mayority to attain.

Last year Guadalupe was involved in a road accident. Her grandmother and great uncle were killed, but miraculously Guadalupe survived and recovered after two weeks in hospital. Her grandmother was an extremely hard worker, (she had permanent work milking cows on a farm) and provided important support for Guadalupe and her mother. As a result of her death, the family’s economic situation became considerably worse, and Guadalupe’s mother had to sell the only cow they owned.

Thanks to Ann from England, Guadalupe has received additional food, clothes and school books. Next year she will be able to go secondary school.