How to save a life
What 23 children taught me about how simple it is to change the world.
December 5, 2007
Gabby Labastida
There is a power in the simplest everyday actions that can change an attitude, an outlook, even a life. Many of you have traveled to far off places and seen the horrors and the sadness present in so much of the world. Some of you have even written articles about your experiences and how they changed you. Mission trips can open our eyes to the needs of others and to the ways many people live, often with very little and in extreme conditions. It breaks our hearts and drives us to change the world, for a little while. Often, however, when we come back we return to our complacency and our habitual apathy and numbness strip us of the passions that were stirred.
This past summer, I traveled to my native land of Mexico. I lived in Puebla, a state two hours south of Mexico City, for three and half months. One morning, I decided to look through the yellow pages for an orphanage to volunteer at. After a few calls, I found Casa del Sol, which means House of the Sun, and it became my second home for three months. This orphanage houses children from infants to six-years-old. The children that enter this orphanage are either abused, abandoned or lost, or children whose parents cannot afford to feed or clothe them.
My first day there, I was taken on a tour of the place that left me heartbroken and speechless. The first room I entered was full of babies, some just days old. There were also one-year-olds attentive to my every move, stretching out their arms to get my attention. Then came the toddlers who instantly surrounded me with questions, hugs and more questions. While the orphanage is one of the better ones, with one crib per child as opposed to one crib per three or four babies found in other orphanages around Mexico, the place still requires many changes, money and volunteers.
Most of the babies had been conceived as a result of either rape or premarital sex, and most of these children’s mothers were between the ages of 11 and 15, just children themselves. When they enter the orphanage, they are usually malnourished, and quite neglected. Their small frames make them look much younger than they actually are. These children captured my heart, and I knew I had to come back every day until my return to Canada.
Everyday, I worked with the small babies; I fed them, changed their diapers, bathed them, rocked them to sleep and played with them. These are all simple tasks, but I gained more than I ever thought possible. It was heartbreaking, but it was also the most fun I have ever had in my life.
The experience opened my eyes to the great need there is for the simplest help. A speaker in church a few weeks ago talked about how one person can make a difference. The speaker shared that sometimes the simplest thing we can do for others is the best thing we can do for them. It doesn’t take a village to raise (or even save) a single child, or an adult for that matter. It takes one willing individual to stand between the line of life and death. One single person willing to make a small but significant difference can change the life of a person. That is all it takes.
Now you go...
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