Washington University junior Matthew Miller shares this story of What One Person Can Do.

Could there be any more cruel fate than to have to watch your child slowly die in front of your face from a perfectly curable malady, helplessly having to watch her die with full knowledge of the fact that she could be cured if only you had a bit more money? This was the situation that a young mother, Maria, was facing when I first met her one day during my five month stay in Guatemala volunteering with The God's Child Project.

 

 

Maria was calm at first and then she broke-down hysterically. Sophia, her three-year-old daughter, had been sick for about a year, she told me. They had taken her to the doctors in Antigua and they had sent her to the specialists in Guatemala City. For months no one could quite figure out what the problem was with little Sophia. Finally, after numerous trips back and forth, from doctor to doctor, from their small home in the pueblo of Ciudad Vieja to the capital, Guatemala City, the doctors determined that Sophia had a hole in her heart and a blockage in one of her arteries. The doctors assured Maria that this condition was fixable but Sophia would need to have open-heart surgery immediately.

 

 

For any of us in the United States this would surely be a very frightening and stressful situation: your three-year-old daughter needs to undergo open-heart surgery to fix a life-threatening defect in her heart. However, your daughter would get the surgery she needed even if it meant you going significantly in debt. But this is not the way it goes in Guatemala. In Guatemala, you pay for the surgery before you get the surgery. No money upfront, no surgery. It is as simple as that.

 

 

Maria, only in her early twenties, was scared, very poor and had long ago exhausted what little she had on expensive doctors' bills and trips back forth to Guatemala City. She had nothing left. 

 

 

Her husband had abandoned her awhile ago, leaving her all alone to feed and provide for Sophia and Sophia's two sisters. She looked as if she had the weight of the world on her and you could see the desperation in her eyes. She had to find one thousand dollars- more than her yearly income- so that her daughter could get the surgery that meant the difference between life and death

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I immediately said that we would help, although I was not sure at all how we were going to come up with an extra thousand dollars so quickly. But I asked her, "Why did you ask me for help?"

 

 

And she replied, "because you work for The God's Child Project and they help people like me." A slight smile appeared on her face and a bit of hope shined through the tears and clouds of despair that had covered her eyes, and she just said, "thank you, God."

 

 

I will never forget this experience with Maria and her ailing daughter, Sophia. I will never forget that opportunity I had to give hope to Maria and a new chance at life to Sophia. I, with The God's Child Project, was able to raise the money to give Sophia a chance at life. She received her surgery and she is doing great. But the harsh reality remains that there are millions of Sophias out there looking for people like you and an organization like The God's Child Project to help them have a chance at life. In fact, while I wrote these few paragraphs several hundred Sophias died needlessly from preventable diseases much more basic than a heart defect. 

 

 

I encourage you to be the next one that gives hope and life to Sophia, or to Juan, or to Zenani, or to Azile, or to....etc. There are thousands of desperately poor children, just like Sophia, waiting, hoping that you realize the power you have to make a difference in their life- in fact, to give them a chance at life. You can make a difference in a life like Sophia's and organizations like The God's Child Project can help.

 

 

Visit The God's Child Project's website, learn more about their work in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Malawi, and donate to them at www.gcpnc.org.

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