Page 17 - St Michael 2022 Chimbote Mission Newsletter

A FAMILY TRANSFORMED

Leonila Bartola Lopez Family

THANKYOU

St Michael Catholic
Church
On behalf of the Leonila Bartola Lopez family, a heartfelt thank you goes out
to you for the generous gift of a home. Because of YOU...This family has
beds to dream in, a roof to protect them and a chance to take one more
step on the path out of poverty.
Leonila López (39)is from a small town called Calipuy in the highlands and
comes from an extremely poor family. She left at the age of 15 and, together
with her siblings, headed to Cambio Puente with the sole intention of finding
better life. During this time, she had her first two children: Diego (19) and
Victor (16). Leonila worked very hard as a single mother and did anything she
could to provide for her family. Leonila met Toribo and know has a partner to
help her in life. They have three chldren together, Angelita (13), Jose (11) and
Carlos (6) years old. They live in extreme proverty, their house is built from estera,
bulrush and straw. They have no access to essential services, no access to water or
sewage system. Leonila sleeps in the same bed as her daughter while the other children
sleep on old dusty blankets on the floor.
Even in the face of all of this scarcity, this brave woman is not daunted by what lies
ahead and fights to provide for her family – sometimes she works in the country-
side, sewing seeds or harvesting crops, other times she works as a cleaner in the local
municipality. Her husband mostly works away for long periods in the highlands as a
laborer and he is paid in kind with food for him to feed his family for a few months.
Leonila travels to the highlands during the harvest seasons to bring back potatoes, corn,
wheat and other types of food. Leonila´s second child helps his stepfather with this work;
although he did not finish high school, he hopes to be able to do so next year. Leonila´s
eldest child works to contribute to the household expenses and is also saving to be able to pay
for his own studies – he wants to study heavy machinery driving. The youngest children all study. Leonila knows
the hard work that it takes to provide for her family but she is always willing to do this because her greatest dream is
that her children will grow up to be professionals, to achieve more than she was able and to have a better life. Like any
other mother, she wants to be able to offer her children a safe place to live.