This morning I sat in the 10X20 foot, one-room home of Lucilia in the municipality of Apopa in the city of San Salvador, El Salvador. Lucilia is 40 years old, but could easily pass for 50 as the sun and stress of life has aged her face far too quickly. She lives in her small home with two daughters, 15 and 3. And although she never told us, the chickens and the scale in the home made it clear that she sells eggs to make her living and support her family.
In-between tears, Lucilia shared with me the heart-wrenching story of her 15-year old daughter, Rachelle. For the past 2 years, Rachelle has lived with a terminal disease that attacks her bones. It has left her body deformed and virtually useless. As a result of this terrible disease, in the near future, this beautiful teenager will lose her life far too early than she should. But today, the disease causes Rachelle pain that is both excruciating and unrelenting. Unfortunately, as her mother explained, there is simply not enough money to pay for the pain medication that would alleviate her pain during this final phase of her life. And if you looked close enough, you could almost see the daughter’s pain on the weathered face of her mother too. Like any mother, she desperately longed to bear the burden for her.
During our conversation, a scene began to unfold on the floor of the dark and dirty home that has forever been etched in my mind. Lucilia’s three-year old daughter briefly left the room and returned with one small bag of used crayons and one coloring book. As the father of a young daughter, I was deeply intrigued. The young girl sat down on the tile floor, pulled two crayons from the bag, and opened her coloring book to the first page… it was already colored. She flipped to the next page… it was also colored. So was the next… and the next… and the next… and the next… and the next…. all colored. My heart again broke for this family – the third time during our short conversation. Oh, how I desperately longed to run to my daughter’s closet and grab just one of her coloring books to give to this incredibly precious little girl. Oh, I longed to see her smile and have a page to color.
The impact of poverty evidenced this morning was among the greatest I have ever witnessed.
While this scene unfolded and the gravity of Rachelle’s situation sunk deep into my soul, my mind raced to a familiar story of the ancient Israelites. The story is told that as the Israelites left Egypt in search of their new home, they found themselves hungry and without food in the Middle-Eastern desert. As the story continues, God provides bread from heaven each morning with only one instruction: Each member of the wandering nation was too “gather only as much as was needed for their family.” And when they did, no one gathered too much and no one gathered too little. But there was equality.
It became very clear to me this morning that this world desperately longs for equality. We need more people who gather “only what is needed.” Because maybe then, others could “gather what is needed.” Nobody will gather too much… and nobody will gather too little.
Now, I am not naïve enough to think that the cycle of poverty around the world will be broken by simply choosing to gather less and give more… there are far greater factors at play here. But when you sit in the home of a dying 15-year old girl and her mother who can’t afford the pain medication available across the street, you feel called to action. You long for the day when people will gather only what is needed. You begin to plead for the privilege of sharing with others. And you begin to realize that Lucilia’s story is far too closely tied to ours.
Priscilla says
My husband grew up in El Triunfo, El Salvador during their civil war. We visit his family there every year and it always breaks my heart to see how they live. The entire country suffers from many public health problems and few people are able to obtain proper medical care.
Tere says
Joshua, Please let me know how I can help Lucilia and her family. I cannot bear to think of this young girl in pain like that and her little sister not even having a page to color.
Kyla says
I read the article below and was touched and inspired by this message. Your post today reminded me of it. The article is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/magazine-11950843
And a great link is here: http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/
Thanks for your blog. I appreciate your approach to spirituality, especially since faith is obviously a large part of your life (and career I believe). I like that you do not beat readers over the head with it, but remind us that we are all human and all called to help each other as best we can.
Jamie says
It is so easy to be moved emotionally…but then the real work is in removing stuff from our lives.
Steve says
Josh
I found your site this some on vacation (I’m a teacher) and have really enjoyed reading through the archives. I am no where near as minimalist as you are, but I am inspired. This article however, is one of your best. Timely post to me. My wife and I just had a heart-to-heart about our own finances this week. While we didn’t have the immediacy of your experience, something similar came to mind.
Believe me I am not looking for traffic with this comment, but if anyone is interested, my latest post on A Certain Quality of Life revolves around just this issue.
Robert Hickman says
Touching story, we jump out to help people when we see a need that connects on such a personal level, but this is happening all the time behind closed doors. How can we bring more exposure to these issues?
I’m in too.
Kristina says
I am in too. Please let us know how we can send to Lucilia’s family.
Tanna says
While in Haiti our group had that overwhelming sense of “We have to do something!” while we were grappling with thoughts of “This problem is just too big for ME” But it is so true, if everyone where to so SOMETHING it would make a difference.
Tracy says
This brings up an interesting issue. While large organizations legitimately need donations, and can buy in bulk and therefore do things more efficiently, I think many people will respond more to individual stories. It’s very gratifying to see where maybe a well-applied $20 can eliminate a problem, whereas $10,000 thrown into the hopper of a large charitable organization still seems like a drop in the ocean. There is an organization called Modest Needs (www.modestneeds.org) that uses this idea to allow people to address specific lump-sum needs for individuals. They vet requests carefully, and it updates instantly so you can see exactly what is needed at this moment to fulfill a need. CNN ran a story on this one day, and I sat there amazed, watching things vanish one by one off the list. I can see pros and cons to this approach–the less “interesting” requests might not get fulfilled (although you can give money to be applied by the organization as they see fit), however I think it’s a novel approach that may spur giving that otherwise might not occur, both because it speaks to people’s hearts, and because some of these things don’t qualify for the kind of help that many charities provide.
Tanna says
That sounds interesting I will have to look into it! When the earthquake happened in Haiti our church gave to an organization to help. Having gone there a year later and learning quite a bit more I wondered what some of these organizations are doing with the money. There are many organizations doing great things (some not so much) but smaller more personal entities seem to be moving mountains because they are not wrapped up in processes and regulations of things. They see a need and fill it. Our church is getting involved with more organizations like this. It becomes much more personal when you can go be apart of it or bring back stories and pictures of a village you helped and not just a spreadsheet of where your money “may have” gone.
Claire says
Amazing post. Really inspiring. I am just at the beginning of my own journey into minimalism. I have always known of the personal benefits of adopting the principles (more space, time, creativity, less stress, etc), but I had not made the full mental leap to the humanitarian power it holds. WOW. It has always been there, tugging my heart in the direction of minimalism, but now it has all clicked into place.
Thank you for the post. Now for some action. How can I help this family?
Melissa says
I have so much to say about this that I don’t even know where to begin.
After recently returning to the States after two years of living in Nicaragua (with my husband and two young kids), this story really hits home. The poverty in most of Central America is shocking, and the dysfunctional governments are doing very, very little to alleviate it. What disgusted me the most was the attitude of the (tiny) upper class toward its fellow citizens. Not only do the wealthy not want to help to alleviate the enormous gap between the rich and poor, they do their best to make sure that others don’t get ahead, which would ruin the status quo-a huge servant population being paid pennies to ensure that the wealthy continue to live the good life. A wealthy local actually criticized my family (and other American expats) for paying our maid more than the minimum wage of $130 per MONTH. She complained that it would drive up wages and “ruin it for the rest of us.” The wealthy witness dire poverty every time they exit the gates of their fancy properties, yet are not moved to help. Their shoes, jeans, or a meal out a fancy restaurant cost more than what they pay their nannies, maids, drivers, or gardeners in a month. Your average middle-class American, living paycheck-to-paycheck, who has never witnessed such poverty feels more empathy and obligation to do what they can to make people’s lives easier, healthier, or happier.
Those two years were life changing for me. Never before had I been given such an opportunity to give. It is an incredible feeling to change someone’s life with a $20 bill…otc remedies for intestinal parasites for a child, multivitamins with iron, cough medication, school supplies etc, etc…Giving was addictive and wonderful. I wish I could go back and do more.
Thank you for sharing Lucilia’s story. She and her family will be in my thoughts.
Julie says
My sister is in Nicaragua right now volunteering for a year as a nurse in a small village clinic. We were thinking of taking the family down, IE husband, me, and two kiddos 6 and 3. Any information that you can share about how to make this a valuable “life lesson” trip for my family would be great. We are hoping that this will start a long life of giving and serving in our children and in us. Is there particular toys that would be good to take to share with the kids of the village, something that would last a long time?
Melissa says
Julie,
Go for it! I can’t think of a better way to jump start a life of giving than taking advantage of the fact that your sister is there volunteering (btw, good for her!). My kids are the exact same age as yours, and we just returned from Nicaragua last summer.
In rural areas, toys are hard to come by. Even in Managua, there are few stores that sell quality toys, and they are very expensive compared to the U.S. Most of what is sold in Nicaragua is cheaply made and junky. If you are a kid whose parents earn $2/day, then you can’t even afford to buy the junky stuff. The kids there would be thrilled with anything you brought. A doll or stuffed animal would be cherished. The little boys are always excited to get toy cars. I once brought a box of Legos-the larger sized ones-to a preschool classroom and dumped them onto the floor and the entire class of kids literally DOVE into the pile and started building. Legos and other types of blocks would be wonderful to bring down. Open ended, high quality, nothing with batteries (too expensive to replace)…Things you would want for your own kids.
Children’s books are hard to find. I found that there’s a better selection of Spanish books for kids at Barnes and Noble than there is in any shop I ever visited in Nicaragua.
School supplies are always needed and can be purchased inexpensively locally. Depending on how remote the village is, you may want to pick these things up while you’re in the city. Paper, pencils, crayons, scissors, glue,etc. are always greatly appreciated.
Please don’t hesitate to email me with any other questions. I am really happy to help.
:) Melissa
mweinhaus@gmail.com