By Camila Urbina Escobar | Cooperation Leader
Meet Yennifer, she is 14 years old and loves to dance more than anything in the world. She was born without her right leg due to a rare genetic condition, but this has never stopped her from following her dreams as a salsa champion.
Yenny is from Ibague, a small city in the west of Colombia, when she was eleven she was dancing at a school performance in the town square and was spotted by a dance teacher, her talent was so amazing that he was surprised to discover she only had one leg.
She was then recruited in to a special dance school that emphasizes on salsa and other tropical rhythms. She quickly rose to the ranks and in a matter of months was dancing with the junior company and competing. This year she participated in the junior salsa championship and was awarded a special mention by the judges. In Yenny’s own words when she is dancing her feelings and all her problems just “melt away”.
Yennifer is a fighter, she is really brave and never gives up, but the past few months have been very challenging. Her old prostheses that was a gift from all her classmates and teacher at her dance school last year was now too small and painful for her to dance with, and she kept getting hurt because she would stop dancing.
Thanks to your generous contributions we gave Yenny a new artificial leg, one fitted for her height and adjusted to help her dancing. She was beyond words, being able to dance again with no pain she could not keep still and couldn’t wait to get back to the dance studio and rehearse.
Yenny says her dream is to travel the world showing her talent and other children and youth with disabilities that anything is possible if you are passionate and work hard. She is poised to compete again in a junior championship this June. With your help Mahavir Kmina gave this wonderful girl a new chance at fulfilling her goals.
So on behalf of Yenny, her family and dance friends we say, Thank you! Your donations made this dream a reality.
Please consider sharing Yenny’s story and our work with your friends and family so we can continue helping more amazing children like Yenny walk confidently to a better future.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
