Felipe's story

So, yesterday I shared with you the story of Sofia, a young lady who has been at Villa Infantil for 13 years now, and is so happy there that even if someone came along to adopt her she would say 'no thanks' and would opt instead to stay with her loving family led by Madre Maria and the two Sisters.

Today I was back at VI chatting some more about various aspects of their work, and I heard the story of Felipe, the youngest of the children there. Again, I have changed his name for obvious reasons.

Felipe came to VI when he was 6 months old, but to look at him you would have thought he was more like 2 months. He was incredibly ill with all sorts of problems and the Sisters did a miracle just keeping him alive at times.

His mother, probably due to him being so sick, abandoned Felipe at the nearby hospital and the local authorities then asked VI to care for him. It is thought that she has 4 other children, but no-one knows quite who they are, or where they are  - presumably fending for themselves as it seems that the mother is unable to care for them.

Due to the mother’s alcoholism, Felipe was born with foetal-alcoholic syndrome, and so had all the associated health and development problems which have had to be treated and overcome as he has grown.

The wonderful news is that Felipe, now age 4, is caught up with others of his age, and the health visitor has declared him to be at the right developmental stages, and the teacher is happy with how he is doing as well. Very good news for a little one with such a rough start in life, and evidence once again of what a massive difference a childhood filled with love, care, ongoing support and strong moral and ethical values can mean to the outcome

If only that love could be bottled and given to all – to the mothers who are caught in such cycles of poverty and bad choices that often there is very little love that goes from them to the children; to the mothers who, through rape, incest etc, are giving birth to unwanted babies and abandoning them as they don’t know how to love and care for the children; to the fathers who are also caught in poverty and bad choice lifestyles and turn to domestic violence as an outlet; and to the wider community who struggles to know how to deal with all the issues on its doorstep.

If only those people could all know the love and care that the Sisters show, so that they could then show that love and care to others, and experience the feelings of value and worth that the Sisters instill in the children in their care. If those broken people could feel valued, respected, loved – and show the same to others, what a different set of outcomes there could be.

Oh that CRED might be able to be involved in finding ways to achieve that – here in Mexico, and also around the world where those similar problems are the scourge of all.