Life Alongside World Vision

By Rosmery Nicolas Roque

I started living in Tacopaya when I was seven years old with my grandparents. At the beginning, it was very difficult as my grandparents were very, very poor and they did not have a house (it had fallen down, only the kitchen left standing). We did not have any money for school books.

My mother and father live together with my grandmother. I have two older brothers, who are 25 and 23 years old. I have a younger brother, who is 17 years old and a little sister who is 14 years old.

My father works in agriculture, either in Tacopaya or on our land in the tropical region, but this year the floods have affected our harvest. My mother is a housewife and also grows crops in Tacopaya.

My oldest brother is in university; the second brother is working in the tropical region; the youngest brother is studying to be able to enter university and my little sister is in her first year of secondary school.

When we first came to Tacopaya, my mother found it especially difficult as she from the city of Sucre, but she is a very hard worker and managed to grow some crops. We managed to buy some land in the tropical region to farm and eight years later we were able to build the house that my family lives in now.

We grew potatoes, peas, broad beans, oca, ulluco, wheat, barley and corn. We also sometimes ate some vegetables like carrots and lettuce. Some years there was not much to eat as there was a lot of rain and the crops were affected.

My dream has been to study medicine but, coming from the country, I felt I didn’t have the necessary knowledge to become a doctor.

The countryside and the city are very different and, although I tried to study medicine with the encouragement of my family, the university in Italy didn’t have the equipment necessary for me to be able to do this. So I am now studying Educational Development Psychology, which is allied to the caring professions.

My scholarship

I was picking coca leaves with my family on our land in the tropical region and World Vision called me to tell me about the opportunity in Italy. I wanted to try for the scholarship and I told my parents that I wanted to go, but my mother felt a bit bad about the prospect of having me leave the family for three years (I am her oldest daughter and she had been able to depend on me).

She felt very emotional about the prospect but, at that stage, the chances of actually being able to go to Italy were very small and I decided that I wanted to try, so I presented my application. It was far from certain that I would be able to go, so I actually joined an institute in Bolivia to keep studying in the meantime and, as I didn’t hear anything back for ages, I assumed that they had selected someone else.

Then, when I was having my summer holidays in the tropical region, the World Vision Oruro office called and said that I had an interview the next day the other side of the country. I felt so happy. My family were talking about all the financial obstacles, such as the cost of getting a passport and a visa, but my brother helped me to get all the documents I needed.

At the beginning it was very difficult. I knew a little bit of Italian, but now I can hold a conversation. I spent only two weeks on an intensive course, but the similarities with Spanish help me. At the beginning I didn’t understand anything that the lecturers said, but little by little I’ve been able to understand. I am able to talk with my family on Skype, but my mum is very sentimental and I don’t want her to cry.

Setting an example

I want to be an example to my family, the community and the district.

World Vision supported the health and nutrition training I got through my school. I was also part of a group of youth who went out to communities to teach others about health and nutrition and to make sure that mothers were following the advice.

This inspired me to study nursing or medicine, because there are always the sick and those who need training and I speak both Spanish and Quechua which helps me communicate with community members and I wanted to do something for the community

I was never sponsored myself, but my younger brother and sister are. Sponsorship is about people from other countries supporting children in my community. Some children receive letters and some get gifts, both my brother and sister have only received letters. When a letter comes they send a response.

My sister likes to write and draw and communicate with her sponsor. For me, it was great to see my brother and sister receiving letters, but some children feel jealous if their friends get lots of gifts.