Meet Alessandra
Alessandra is a smart, energetic kindergarten student. She’s in her second year in the school, but, thanks to COVID, most of her time with us has been spent doing distance learning. Fortunately, this hasn’t affected Alessandra’s love of learning and school.
Although Alessandra is unaware, her father is an alcoholic. The family lives with the parents of her mom, who cover most of their food and living expenses. Her father works as a mechanic and receives his weekly pay each Friday. After this he disappears each weekend to spend his money on alcohol and the family doesn’t see him again until Sunday. Alessandra’s mom and grandparents have taken great precautions to avoid that Alessandra sees her father this way. Despite the fact that he doesn’t spend much time with her or play with her, she still loves him and loves being around him.
What Alessandra’s grandparents don’t know, is that her dad doesn’t help with any of Alessandra’s expenses, such as clothes, food, or schooling. Her mom works hard to cover any expenses and doesn’t want her parents to discover this, for fear that they would finally kick Alessandra’s dad out of the house. The family depends on the support of the grandparents. Because of this lack of financial assistance from her husband, Alessandra’s mom was very worried how she would be able to provide a quality education for her daughter. But God led her to us. When we shared with her our offer of a full scholarship for Alessandra’s education with us, her mom could no longer hold back her tears. It had been emotional for her to share their story with us and then to receive this very unexpected news, she was overwhelmed and extremely grateful.
Alessandra and her mom continue to earn her scholarship each and every day, working hard to continue advancing throughout distance learning and completing every single activity and assignment to the best of their ability. Her grandparents were recently diagnosed with COVID, so her mom has become a full-time caregiver for them. We explained that we understood the situation and would have patience and understanding with any late assignments during this time. But they have continued to send each and every assignment on time.
Alessandra is a ray of light in the school. Last year during the worst of the pandemic she routinely sent photos and videos to her teacher, saying how much she missed her. Then in one of her packets of work we found 20 quetzales (the equivalent of roughly $3). We quickly asked her mom about the money and tried to return it to her, only to be told that Alessandra had made pancakes and sold them to her neighbors to earn money to donate to her school, all of her own decision. We were overwhelmed with gratitude and touched by this sweet gesture from a 5-year-old child.
Students like Alessandra give us hope for the future of Guatemala. Her mom works hard to give her a better life than the one she had and we know, with what we have already seen of Alessandra, she will make a difference in this world. We’re just so honored to be a small part of that difference in her life.
