Seeing statistics

It's one thing to read a statistic, and another to meet someone whose life embodies it. For instance, I know from national census data that 66% of Cajabamba's population lives in poverty, and that fully half that number remain in conditions of extreme poverty. Those numbers make me sad, but on a level that's somewhat removed from reality. But today I was fighting back tears as I listened to a woman tell me, through the story of her life, what those numbers really mean.

One of my socias from the Center for Violence Against Women was leading a workshop, and the introductory activity asked each participant to write down the dreams they had for their lives when they were young. First I helped several of the women write down their responses: about a quarter of them couldn't functionally read or write, and another's eyes were so bad that she couldn't see the words in front of her. Then it was time to share. Each response was moving: to be a professional, to have strong faith, to be a good mother. When Paola's turn arrived, she held the paper with her written response tightly, but did not look at the words she couldn't read. Her voice trembled and her eyes glistened with tears as she said: "my dream was to go to school, to learn and get an education, but my parents were poor so they couldn't afford to send me." Those missed opportunities are what poverty truly means; a thirty year-old woman whose biggest regret is missing the elementary school education that many of us take as a given.

What hit me hard as I watched Paola talk was not just the raw pain she clearly still felt, but learning that she manages to be the amazingly strong woman she is despite that still-present hurt and despite her lack of initial opportunity. She is a leader in her community, volunteering to teach women neighbors to speak out against gender-based violence. She also runs her household, works to cultivate her family's farm, and is raising her young children. Her own parents weren't able to send her to school, but she smiled with pride as she told us that her sons sí estudian - they are studying.