Lurdes- the inspiration for MySmallHelp Peru

Louise Whitaker

28^th March 2011

Leander Hollings, president and founder of Mysmallhelp Peru was introduced to Lurdes in June 2010 and was asked if she could help her in any way. Leander quickly accepted her role as godmother and committed to finding a way for Lurdes to have access to an education, training and a wheel chair. This was the beginning of MySmallHelps involvement with children in Peru , following the previous years emergency relief work with the community of Paucarbamba.


Lurdes is eighteen years old and has a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, which causes bones to break, bend, and twist easily . 


Lurdes lives in Rumira with an abusive and alcoholic mother and step father. Her alcoholic father left her mother when she was young. Lurdes suffers from neglect.. Lurdes can´t walk. Until 9 months ago, Lurdes was immobile and spent all her time at home, never attending school or venturing out into the community. During the second half of 2010, Lurdes received a wheelchair from a Spanish donor and began to receive private tuition lessons at home from a local teacher and was introduced to Cusceñan jewellery teacher- all through the work of MySmallHelp.
 Lurdes jewellery business is growing steadily. She is now out and about in the community more but she still needs support to be able to get in and out of her wheel chair and to access certain areas.


 Lurdes is very keen to learn to read and write but is progressing slowly because her school teacher is currently only visiting her for 6 hours a week.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Lurdes for a while whilst in Ollantytambo and can say that for all that she has been through, she is an absolute delight to be around. She´s  a teenager who loves styling her hair, painting her nails and  she loves clothes! She has an infectious giggle and is great fun to be around.  Her dream is to live independently and  to look after her sister and brother and the team at MySmallHelp hope to work with Lurdes´strong spirit to help her achieve this through both donations and through supporting Lourdes to run her own jewellery business.  I and my family hope to help Lurdes through the work of MySmallHelp.