A Lifelong Contribution

20 Nov 2008

Thanks to his sponsors overseas, a young man from SOS Children's Village Bogotá takes a new step in his life as a kindhearted husband and a responsible father. "Please, tell those so caring 'padrinos' that thanks to them, he has got an apartment for his wife and his newly born baby," says an emotional father in-law. Read in this interview with former SOS child Wilson:

When the interview begins, he is there seated on a chair. His clear big eyes remain still, like watching the horizon, but soon move towards me and her wife's. The young woman's eyes are warm and tender. They look at each other firmly for a little while without uttering a word, but somehow it seems that they are telling each other several things.

I finally ask: "Wilson, how do you feel about your new apartment?"

He immediately looks at his wife and through a series of sign language gestures, he says something to her. Soon the silence is broken when Luis Carlos, Jenny's father and father and Wilson's father-in-law, sighing, says: "Just imagine Wilson's future without the support of those caring sponsors... thanks to whom my daughter Jenny and Wilson now count on an apartment for them and their baby."

In the meantime, Wilson and Jenny are smiling and holding their lovely baby together.

Wilson's arrival

It was 1985 when destiny took Wilson away from his parents and pushed him to live with a relative. His living conditions were terrible and his deafness became worse. It was then that SOS Children's Village Bogotá welcomed the child.

In the village, Wilson developed almost like any other child of the village. The personal and family values were inspired by his SOS mother Liliana whom he assures to love very much. In this way, Wilson kept on growing and learning without knowing that during all these years, he had been receiving the support of several "padrinos", say, international sponsors who, through different types of contributions, built a future for the kid.

Wilson's autonomy
Once Wilson left the organisation to live on his own, he found a job and met a lovely special girl like him, whom he married after a while. By then, he was already told about the contributions of his sponsors, an important economical support the organisation had in custody waiting for the young man to ask for it whenever he really needed to assure his development. Well, it was Wilson's decision to ask for it to buy an apartment in Bogotá for his young family.

Today, Wilson and Jenny, together with their baby daughter, live happily in their new apartment which was used by them for the first time just a month ago. They are now planning to furnish the rooms little by little so that they can offer their daughter a comfortable place and, of course, the unconditional love of a mother and a father.

My visit is over. Wilson prepares himself to go back to his routine, not before asking me with signs, though, to tell how grateful he is to his sponsors whom he kindly calls "padrinos" in Spanish.

SOS Children has five children's villages in Colombia at Bogotá, Ibagué, Rionegro, Bucaramanga and Ipides which provide a family for life for over 700 children. There are SOS Social Centres which are part of these villages and additional projects supporting communities at Tumaco, Caratagena and Quitbo which provide day care/child minding services to families.

You can support children in Colombia today by sponsoring a child.

Relevant Countries: Colombia.