Juanita learns what it is to be a child again after losing her mother
Two weeks after Juanita Borda’s mother died, she and her five younger siblings moved to a small house in SOS Children’s Village Pachacamac, Peru.
The leafy village is an oasis in this dusty town just outside of Peru’s capital city, Lima. But for the Borda children, the playground, the green lawn and the air filled with birdsong are comforting. The Borda children were brought up in a home marked by violence. Their father was in jail charged with the murder of their mother, and their extended family was not able to support them.
SOS mother Sonia Rugel was already caring for four children when she got word that the Borda children had arrived.
“As they were there waiting, I went up to them and Juanita said ‘Are you going to be our mother?’” Sonia recalls. “I replied: yes.”
At the time, Juanita was barely a teenager but she was used to taking care of her siblings. Sona explains that Juanita used to sew clothes at the market and was responsible for cooking for her family.
“When she came here she was very worried about the little children,” says Sonia. “Little by little we would send her into the garden or to play so that she could understand that she is a child as well and that she also needs care and attention.”
Now 17, Juanita wants to study international business – in the meantime she is satisfying her entrepreneurial desire by selling her arts and crafts. Soon, she plans to launch a website to sell her crafts, which include colourful flowers made from stockings and Christmas wreaths.
“Somehow I feel I am the example for my family. I want to be a professional. I want to help people like the people here who helped us,” she says.
Juanita’s drive and determination made her the perfect choice to address Peru’s Congress this year about protecting children’s rights. “I was so excited,” she says. “There were so many teenagers my age who knew a lot more than me [about children’s rights]. I learned a lot, and I wasn’t nervous about speaking. I want to do it again.”
Although she is busy making plans for her future, Juanita does not want to forget her past. With the little pocket money she has earned from selling her arts, she recently bought sand and cement to make a headstone for her mother’s grave in the dusty foothills of the Andes.
“They love their parents,” says SOS mother Sonia. “I dream of so much for them. I want to do more for them, to give them more opportunities.”
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