By Erin Fitzgerald
Success and accomplishment radiate from 19-year-old Angélica Durango. Despite many challenges, she’s never stopped believing in herself. Now her dreams of becoming a dentist are starting to come true as she prepares to graduate from the Children International® Sponsorship Program.
“Sponsorship has brought so much to my life,” Angélica explains. “I was able to grow as a person…perhaps it has helped me to be strong and to move forward no matter what problems come along the way.”
Looking at Angélica now, few would believe that life wasn’t always so easy for her.
A year ago, at her home in Cartagena, Colombia, she revealed that her dreams to become a dentist were nearly crushed when she didn’t pass the competitive entrance exam to study at Cartagena’s public university. But that didn’t hinder her resolve.
Today, positivity emanates from her as she tells of securing a government loan designed for low-income recipients. The loan is allowing her to attend a private university so she can one day become a dentist, contribute to her family’s income and help others like her.
“I like to work with people,” she notes. “I like to feel the satisfaction of…[doing] a good job for people. You help them to feel better about themselves, and you improve their smile.”
Sponsorship and the Children International® Youth Program have done the same for Angélica by helping her overcome shyness, speak in public, gain self-confidence and become a leader.
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One day Angélica hopes to offer dental services to
children living in poverty. |
“Usually here in Colombia, the opinion of the youth isn’t really taken into account,” she explains. “The [youth] program is essential because it helps youth be heard.”
Angélica was fortunate to be selected by her peers to represent the Cartagena sponsorship agency at our International Youth Conference in 2006. Held in Kansas City, the weeklong event taught the youth how to work together as a team and get more youth involved in the Youth Program to ultimately bring positive change to their impoverished communities.
Shortly after returning from the IYC, Angélica started a dental technician course, thanks in part to help from a HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty through Education) scholarship she received from Children International.
Angélica recently completed the program and has found work making dental prosthetics. She was scheduled to recently begin classes at a private university to become a dentist. Her ultimate goal is to offer dental care to poor children and youth.
“A lot of people have dental anomalies, and usually the procedures are so expensive that poor people can’t afford them,” Angélica laments. “I’d really like to have a foundation where I can provide dental help for them.”
Angélica will soon graduate from our program, and will continue striving for her goals. But she won’t soon forget the impact Children International and her sponsor have had on her life.
“I understand the reality,” she says. “It’s going to be difficult. But nothing is impossible. With the help of God and Children International, I can overcome anything and reach my dreams.”
Reporting assistance by Marelvis Campo of our Cartagena, Colombia, agency. Photos by Jennifer Spaw of our Kansas City office.
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