Life can be so hard

Jo Ann and I volunteer for a local organization called Patronato Pro-Niños de San Miguel de Allende, A.C. (PPN). PPN provides total medical and dental care to the young children who live in the compo areas surrounding San Miguel. If the family has limited or no resources to pay for medical care PPN will pick up the bill, while almost all of the medical services are provided by local doctors, dentists and other care organizations. It is a great organization that is always in need of financial supporters and volunteers.

As volunteers we will go and visit the local schools that are in our area and talk with the directors and teachers about the program and their students who need medical care. Most times the level of care needed is basic dental work and vision examinations, primarily for eye glasses.

However, sometimes when we talk to the directors, the situation can be much more dramatic. This past week we visited on the schools that is only about 10 kilometers from our home. During the discussion the Directora introduced us to a young boy who is very attentive and energetic, but who can not speak. She told us that the child's mom is not willing to accept help and the child is basically left on his own. There are local schools that can help this child but the mother is not willing to enroll the child even though there would be little to no financial obligation. What can we do to help, we keep asking ourselves, but we can not force the mother to extend the effort to help the boy.

Then there was another situation that is even more disheartening to us. Over the past year we have gotten to know a young boy, who is about 11, when we were out biking in the compo. We saw this boy at the school and the Directora told us that he needed some vision examinations and probably will need some glasses. She then went on to tell us that the father who is around 60, recently went blind, the mother needs major dental work (she is losing all of her teeth), the oldest daughter, who is over 30, lives at home and is an alcoholic, and there are seven other children. The father can not work due to the blindness and there is no social security or welfare organizations in Mexico so this family is in dire straights. It is so bad that the oldest boy was so hungry that he left the family and is somewhere in the US working. The family has had no contact with him since he left so they don't know where he is or how he is doing. PPN is trying to help this family by giving the father and mother references to different organizations that can help them with the blindness and dental problems, which is very helpful. But without financial support and with no ability to find employment, this family is suffering. Again we continue to ask ourselves, what can we do to help.

These are such a difficult situations but not ones that are limited to only this community. There are so many needy families here in Mexico and only so many organizations and volunteers to help. Living down here you really gain an appreciation as to why men, boys and even total families will risk their lives to cross the border to try to gain some type of employment up north. We are trying to help, but the organizations need more financial support and volunteers so if you can please contribute financially or volunteer your time, both are needed.