Around the World with CFCA

A day in the life of a CFCA social worker

By Leticia Salazar Fonseca, CFCA social worker in Costa Rica

Leticia delivering mail to children in Desamparados

My name is Leticia, and I have been serving CFCA for more than eight years. It is early in the morning, and I get up thanking our Lord for another day of life. I put my life in His merciful hands as I prepare a cup of coffee.

To be part of the CFCA team has been an immense blessing for me. We feel that what we do is not just a job: it is a mission in our life. I get ready to visit communities in the morning and to distribute benefits in the afternoon. Today we will visit the communities of Desamparados, Los Alpes and La Managuita.

Los Alpes
In our home visits, we offer hope and dignity to all our sponsored families. This is why, early in the morning, we arrive at the community of Los Alpes. With the help of the mothers, we prepared breakfast for a little over 100 sponsored children and, while we do that, they all are talking about the trip to the water park they enjoyed last week. They had the opportunity to share with their friends and to enjoy the pools, horse rides, trails, etc. We had 12 buses full of smiling angels who waved at anybody who would look at them. To get out of their violent and aggressive communities and to be able to enjoy a healthy environment has a great meaning and value for them.

While we were with the children, we were notified that one of our sponsored elderly, Jose, had lost his home and belongings in a fire. Apparently robbers broke into his house the night before, while he slept at his relatives’, and decided to burn it to erase any evidence. We went to visit Jose and found him sadly looking through the rubble of his house and remembering his 50 years of marriage.

Last year, Jose’s wife passed away, and this has him very depressed, “I lost little things and memories that one saves,” Jose said with tears in his eyes. “God loves me; he did not let me die in this fire. No matter what happens, we must trust Him, because better things will come.”

Jose lost eight guitars he handmade. “The material things burned down but the formula to make my guitars cannot be taken away, it is saved in my memory,” Jose told us. Amidst the pain, it is incredible to see the solidarity of the sponsored families in the area who were already trying to find clothing and goods to help Jose. CFCA is already finding ways to support him, too. (more…)

September 10, 2009 at 12:53 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 2 comments