Living in poverty is hard. How would it feel if your family couldn’t afford a safe home, food, clean water, clothes or medicine? You might start to lose hope that a better life is possible. That’s why it’s so important that kids who live in poverty learn to dream big ... because God has big plans for them!
Flor, the girl pictured above, is a sponsored 8-year-old in Peru who wants to be a pilot. Let’s travel around Latin America to meet more kids like her who dressed up to dream about their future jobs.
Their sponsors and teachers are showing them that with God — and by working hard in school — they can achieve big things!
Yameli lives in Peru. She goes to the one school in her town. “My favorite part of school is the experiments we do,” she says. “And that’s exactly why I want to become a scientist when I grow up, just like the ones we learn about in our books.”
At Yameli’s Compassion center, she learns how she can use her dreams to help people — like families who can’t afford enough food. “When I become a scientist, I will create a type of food that will take hunger away once you eat it, and you’ll be fine for the whole day,” says Yameli, who is thankful to eat meals at her center. “That would be awesome for many children.”
“When I grow up, I want to be a civil engineer to build bridges, highways and a big house for my family,” says Santiago, who lives in Colombia. And when he says “big house,” he means it! “The house will have two floors, two kitchens, four bathrooms, five bedrooms, three backyards and a garden with flowers,” says Santiago, who lives in his great-grandmother’s home. He shares one room with his mother, grandmother and sister.
He knows he needs to study hard to reach his dreams. “To be an engineer I have to be the best at school, and I am already working on that. I always do my homework.”
In Justin’s neighborhood in Ecuador, he sees a lot of litter and other pollution. “I do not like when people throw garbage in the street,” says Justin. He’s even sadder about the beaches near his home. They have a lot of trash on them, too, which often ends up in the ocean.
But Justin has dreams of how he can help someday. “I want to be an astronaut because I believe that we can reach other planets, and bring machines and technology to clean the oceans and seas,” he says. “I want to remove all the garbage and plastic and send them away from our planet.” While Justin works toward his dream of being an astronaut, he’s doing what he can to help now. Every week he picks up trash in the street outside his house, and he tells his friends not to pollute.
Camila dreams of helping all the animals in her Bolivian town. “When I grow up, I want to be a veterinarian because I love animals very much,” she says. “I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian since my father gave me my first puppy.”
“It makes me sad when I see animals that are abandoned, sick or mistreated,” says Camila, who is in charge of feeding and caring for her family’s three pets. “My favorite animals are dogs, but I want to heal all kinds of animals.” She believes she will reach her dream because she gets support from her parents, her sponsor and the Compassion center teachers who help her with her homework.
Of course Scarlet loves playing doctor, since that’s what she dreams of being someday. Good thing her neighbor Samuel is a good sport! Here, the two of them are playing at Scarlet’s home in Ecuador.
Scarlet brings her red first-aid kit to her Compassion center, just in case any of the other sponsored children there has an accident. “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor because I want to save lives, and I want to see all the children always healthy and happy,” Scarlet says. Pray that Scarlet will reach her dream of becoming a doctor!
