My name is Joselyn, I was born on April 2011 in the village Sepoc, Cahabon, Alta Verapaz, in health center.
My parents are Fredy and Carolina, I have 4 siblings, I have a twin sister, which I do not look like, my parents tell us that she was born 30 minutes earlier than I.
When I was very little I got so sick with fever that I almost died.
At the age of 6, I wanted to help my parents with the housework, I started to learn how to make tortillas, but my mom wouldn’t let me, finally my grandmother taught me how to make tortillas and tamales.
When I was 7 years old I began to study elementary school in my village school, my family lives in extreme poverty, so every time I went to study my mother told us that we should not get envy of what our classmates ate because they could not give us money. The school supplies they bought me had to be taken care of because they were too expensive to buy.
When I came home from school, I would do my homework and then I would help with the housework, sweeping, cleaning the house and other chores, every day I had to do the same activities.
My house is made of wood, my father works in agriculture, harvesting beans and corn, the harvest is twice a year, when there was no good harvest, we saved the little to survive, sometimes we had nothing to eat and the only thing we ate was spicy sauce with tortillas. My mother made tamales to sell and I helped her prepare them since I was a little girl.
Because of the shortage of money and the bad harvest, my parents borrowed money, we have a debt that we still can’t pay up to now.
In the year 2023 we had many problems with my relatives, one day when I was at school we were informed that my grandfather died, he got sick because one day he was hit with a piece of wood and also because of the problems they had with my relatives, it was something really terrible for me, because my grandfather always took care of us and treated us well, it has not been long, and I miss him.
In that same year I finished sixth grade and due to lack of money and poverty I was not going to continue studying, one day some graduates from the institution of “Villa de las Niñas “who worked for a company that created groups of women in the villages to lend them money and with that money the women plant vegetables and then pay them, They came to my village and when they found out that most of the girls in my village were no longer going to continue studying high school, they explained to us that they knew of a place where they gave us free education, but we had to take an exam and they brought us to the capital city of Guatemala to take the exam.
In December 2023 we were informed that I passed the exam to enter the “Villa de las Niñas” School in the Capital City, I was happy because it was a great opportunity, although some people told us that it was a lie and that this place did not exist and that what they wanted was to steal children, I wanted to continue studying and I did not pay attention to the comments of the people.
In January 2024 I entered “Villa de las Niñas” and I am happy to study and to live with many girls who like me who need to study and have a bright future, thanks to the Sisters of Mary, I will learn many more new things here.
I really thank God for the given opportunity, for Father Al, for the Sisters of Mary and for all those kind-hearted people who really believe that education is the best way to break the cycle of poverty, thank you for supporting us. May the Lord bless you a hundred-fold.