DEYSI ROSA WANTS TO BE A NURSE
To spend years in one place,
sharing experiences with its people and accompanying them in their personal
processes, has its rewards. Deysi Rosa, for instance, is a great gift for us. We met her when
she was barely three years old, and we had just arrived at the Totora Pampa
Community in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Deysi, the second of five sisters, was always
shy, responsible, hard working and endowed with a great interior strength.
However, the family environment where she was growing up didn’t forecast
success. Her older sister, at age 20, was already raising two children. Her
younger sister didn’t want to study because her plans were, as she put it, “to
find a husband while I am still young”.
Deysi, however, had this vague “something”
that some people possess, which makes you think that they can really improve
their odds, that they won’t accept for themselves a somber future. For years we
saw the determination and will that Deysi put into her studies in spite of the
fact that the majority of her classmates were abandoning the classroom and
starting families.
When we asked her what she wanted
in life, she would adopted a firm posture, in spite of her shyness, and would
tell us that she would like to achieve more than just work the land and have
children. She wanted to study and learn about other places. Her plan, though
simple in appearance, was a great challenge: in order to achieve it, she needed
to break cultural habits and overcome many economic barriers. The distance between
Totora Pampa, in the mountains, and the big city of Cochambamba (where she
would study) was not just geographic, but also economic and social.
Seeing her situation, and that of
several girls from the same area that had approached our community, we decided
to provide scholarships to six young women to study nursing at an institution
for women from rural areas. The advantage of this institution is that it provides
the students with a place to study, materials, food, schedules and living accommodations.
The young people from rural areas can, in this way, overcome the previously
mentioned obstacles and barriers and complete their professional formation in
the best possible environment.
Today, Deysi is a full time
student, and tells us how she takes full advantage of her time, because she
knows that this opportunity is a gift.
We, however, think that she is the gift. Her interior strength has
opened a previously closed door, so that in the future other women from Totora
Pampa may follow her footsteps.
