Bringing Peace to the Paz Family

A year ago Washington Cathedral raised money to “finish” the nursery – the structure was up, but we still needed interior elements such as flooring, windows, etc. For a year the room was used miscellaneously, as we had no money to staff the nursery. Finally, our dream of caring for babies in soft, comfortable beds instead of cardboard boxes in the dump came into fruition thanks to some help from Orphan Outreach and Street Kids Direct.

Last week we checked in our first two babies: a brother and sister of a family involved with AFE. The “Paz” family is deeply entrenched in garbage dump life. Both parents work in the garbage; so does each of their children when they leave AFE’s doors: except for these two new inductees to the nursery.

Lilobeth is two years old and though she hasn’t “worked” in the dump, she has spent all of her life there, beside her mother, learning the trade by observation. She bears the ramifications of this life. Her toddler skin is already leathery from overexpose to the sun, and her hair looks like dirty straw pulled into a pony tail. But now is in AFE’s nursery during the day, lovingly cared for by Johanna, who has young children of her own.

Daniel, her brother, is three months old, and the nursery opened at an opportune time for him. His mother took a “maternity leave” of three months when he was born, and was about to go back to work in the dump when she instead decided to put he and Lilobeth in the nursery. Daniel’s skin has a healthy glow, and his smile is easy. He is the eighth child of the “Paz” family and the first to grow up outside of the dump. “Paz” means peace. Daniel will be the first to crawl on tiled floors, sleep in clean blankets…with the sound of twinkling mobile instead of garbage trucks.

Thank you to all of those who helped bring peace to the children of the Paz family. Our prayer is that little Daniel will be the first in the Paz family to never know the garbage dump. The cycle of working in the garbage dump ends with Daniel.