Among the poor people in Peru, it is almost customary that those who can not afford to feed another child, rather than preventing the birth, will give the child to a foster family. There is no formal adoption or anything like that. A few are raised as a son or daughter, but many more are raised to be the family servant, or worse yet, a slave. Only when they feel they are old enough to strike out on their own do they leave. Many of the young girls get pregnant at an early age and perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
That is pretty much exactly what happened to Noemi. She met her future husband and became embarazada about the same age as her mother did with her. Jose, her someday husband to be, took her away from the family that was using her as a maid and brought her to live with his father who was first generation Chinese. He took her in as a daughter and watched over her while Jose drove trucks all over Peru. Jose would drop in from time to time, for a birth or long enough to get her pregnant again. The Chinese father taught her to cook and generally gave her a better life than she had in the past. Jose finally did the right thing and married her.
Noemi tells the story of when she first started school. She didn't have enough money to buy pencils, so she made a batch of candy to sell so she could buy a few pencils and other things she needed for school. PENCILS! Let that soak in for a second. Anyway, she wanted to test the hardness of the candy and she pushed her finger down into the gooey stuff. It was so hot, and it was so thick, it stuck to her finger, burning her so badly that the skin came off. Just so she could buy a few pencils to do her school work. She made it through the third grade.
The family got by but they were never well-to-do. Noemi instilled in her kids a sense of self-worth. I can tell you from personal experience that none of them suffers from a lack of self esteem. Rose's father would often tell his daughters to never depend on a man for your livelihood. Always have a way to provide your own income. That advice, and a desire to never be poor again caused Rose to seek a professional education and she quite literally pulled herself up from the depths of poverty by her own bootstraps. She found that a lot easier to do in the United States. We are not called the Land of Opportunity for no reason. You've heard me say it before: Hardly anyone can swing getting a legal visa to enter the US. Those who are held by the chains of poverty in Peru are not going to be coming here. For one thing, it is not like Mexico where one can take a short trip to the border and hop across the fence. Peru is way down the west side of South America. The trip is expensive and extremely arduous.
One could make the argument that these people got themselves into this mess. Let them get themselves out. It is easy to feel that way until you consider the children. They are blameless. They did nothing to get themselves into the misery they find themselves in. We hope to break that cycle of poverty by education.
To wrap this post up, let me say that Rose wants to ensure that other Peruvian children do not face the same fate as her mother did as a young girl, simply because the parents or the single mother has too many mouths to feed. Promesa Peru (Promise Peru) is the organization that is going to do the job.
