Some of you who joined us at last year´s Christmas party will surely remember the happy, humble little boy who exclaimed, "Is all this for me" when the waiter placed his Christmas lunch on the table, and who couldn not see well enough to work out what his present was and had to ask us "What is it?" - but at least he could still see then
.
Sadly, within months Pedro went completely blind.

Already in January, from what she had seen at the Christmas party, Ana Tere had begun trying to organise help for Pedro. She went first to the Lyons Club, who in 2003 had helped a couple of our children who had eye problems. She and Charo also contacted the National Health Service.

Early efforts bore no fruit. In April she had to leave for our project in Spain. Since May Ana Tere has been in frequent contact with Charo (the Trujillo project director) via SKYPE, WhatsApp and Viber. She also similarly contacted people in Government and medical establishment who might take an interest in Pedro´s case.

Pedro lives with his mother and little sister in a "ranchero" (reed hut with plastic roof) not far from our Nuevo Jerusalen school. His mother helps out at the local market to support the family, leaving her children on their own when not at school. When Pedro´s medical history arrived it revealed the mother is on medication for AIDS, and that Pedro´s degenerative eye condition had begun in her womb, where he became HIV positive.
Pedro´s mother must accompany him to any official or medical consultations; but the poor woman, uneducated, inattentive and seeming to be ashamed to have to go where people will know her condition. She was a no-show at the first few appointments, wasting everyone´s time and making it impossible for Pedro to receive help.

Ana Tere and Charo worked out a procedure by which Charo or the social worker would collect Pedro and his sister in a taxi, take them to the market, there collar the mother: and the lot of them go to whatever appointment was lined up.