Augustina: Returning hope to Juan

Recovering her husband’s health   •   August, 2017

Augustina was always committed with her work, she is a high skillful knitter and the pieces she knits are a piece of art. She is married to Juan and both live with three of their children: Jhonny, Irene and Santa. The rest are married and live apart. From them, Jhonny is very sure he wants to become an Architect someday.

I remember watching Augustina always serious, few times smiling and when I met her story, I understood what was happening.

The health of her husband, Juan, was not good. Juan was suffering from a serious case of fungus on his hands and feet and his hearing was very bad. These two conditions were keeping him just inside home, with limited sun exposure and not being able to work and make a normal life or support his family. He was very sad and his condition was not good at all.

One day, Augustina invited us to share lunch together, while she was telling us how hard her life was, how she has to sustain alone the whole family, tears start running through her face and between all the things she said I keep on my mind her words “at least now I can smile because I have job”.

Once again, not knowing exactly what to do, I shared Augustina and Juan’s story with our great clients committed to Fair Trade practices and to whom people are above money. I knocked a door and thanks to the kindness and huge heart of our client from Canada, we were able to buy medicines and special food for Juan to recover from the fungus. It was also our intention to buy a hearing aid so he could make a normal life.

Time after, when Juan finished taking all the medicines his health and self-confidence improved very noticeable. He was able to work again and surprisingly his hearing improved too. This made the family very happy and brough peace to their home, at least now all the members were in good health condition.

I want to share some pictures I made at Augustina’s home, after looking at them more than once I notice that I have never seen her smiling in that way.

Happily shared by: Maria del Pilar Marcapiña, a story with a happy end.