When our Yapacaní site staff first met Bedulia, the 12-year-old was living with her parents and younger sister in rural Bolivia. Their humble house was made of motacú (palm) leaves. Her father, Felipe, was a farmer, and her mother, Panfila, was a housecleaner. At the time, energetic and outspoken Bedulia thought she wanted to be a lawyer. She studied hard, knowing that her education mattered for her own future, and that of her family.
Now 25, Bedulia is still lively, openhearted, and dedicated to her studies. Naturally, there have been many changes in 13 years, but they’ve faced them as a family.
For many years, her mother Panfila has been affected by an illness that has never been definitively diagnosed. All of the family’s resources have been poured into her medical needs. Bedulia remembers the day she learned she was sponsored, she was relieved –not for herself, but for her mother.
“My family and I, when we received help for the first time, cried with joy, we felt very happy, because at that time we suffered a lot because of my mother’s health,” Bedulia says.
“All the money my father earned from his work in the countryside was spent on my mother’s healing, so Chalice’s help was essential for us.”
Her sponsor’s support through the freed Bedulia to shine in the classroom, often topping her class. She also became involved in her Catholic parish and site activities, where she learned dances, songs, crafts, and games with other children. In her teens, she built a community garden, hoping it would be a place where her friends and neighbours would find both physical and spiritual nourishment.
As the end of high school approached, she was re-thinking her lawyer ideas. Health and healing, it seemed to her, were her calling. Determined to turn around her mother’s life, she began researching nursing programs.
“When I was in my last year at school,” she says, “I worked hard, received my degree with the highest distinction. [I] received a monetary award, which I used to enroll in the nursing program at the university.”
“I am currently in my fifth year of university; my wish is to work in a hospital and help my mother recover from the illness she suffers from.”
Her sponsor and her parents “never stopped supporting me,” and she always had the materials she needed for class.
“I am infinitely grateful for the kind help received from the sponsorship program, I am blessed to have my sponsors…who are a great gift from God in my life and who I will carry in my heart and in my life forever.”