My Story

It is a nice day to say hello to you through this. My name is Brayan Alexander Gutierrez Ventura, and I am glad to introduce myself to you. I am eleven years old. This year I am in fifth grade, and taking face-to-face classes at school, from Monday through Friday. The days I go to school, I hand in my homework to the teacher. I have done well in my studies so far. After school, I help my mom with the household work. Thankfully, the feeding program is open again. For me to get there, it takes an hour by taking a three wheel motorcyle, or ten minutes by walking. I do not have my father´s support because he abandoned us years ago. My mother earns a living by working as a housemaid, so I accompany her whenever she goes to work.

At night we take time to talk about school or other things, because we do not have time to do it during the day. We do celebrate Christmas when we have the resources to. We attend the Catholic Church, located thirty minutes away from home by walking. We got very sad and concerned about the situation, the time the church was closed due to the pandemic. Thank God, everything has been changing little by little. We live at my maternal grandparents’ house. We do not share the household expenses. There are two rooms and separate kitchen. The house is made of mud-brick, tin sheet roof and dirt floor. We do not have running water or electricity service. We use candles to light up at night. And we get water by using containers from the house of an aunt of mine, who provides it to us. The house condition is good. Let me tell you that pandemic did affect my family. As my mother is a single parent, getting food supplies which is a greatest need at home, turned difficult to her. It was the basic for us to live. God has been faithful to us, and he provided grocery bags through the feeding program. It was all a great blessing for my family and me to be nourished. May God bless all the people who provided this support to us. I pray God to pay you back greatly! At the moment, my family and I are all doing well, thanks to God. To finish, I want you to know, my mom gave this information to an Evangelism team member to share with you my last news. I bless you and your family. Thank you for taking time and reading this.

Kind regards,

Brayan Alexander Gutierrez Ventura

Translated by: Febe Ruiz / AAC Secretary-Antigua