Raising Hope for Healing Survivors

This child was brought into the ITEMP program at the end of 2010. He is originally from Guatemala City and comes from a broken home where his parents beat him and treated him poorly due to their alcohol problems. The mother abandoned the home because her husband had an accident which made it difficult for him to work since he was only able to get around in a wheelchair. Due to the separation of the parents no one took responsibility for the children and they went to live with an aunt.

Because of the aunt´s lack of income she asked the children to wash clothes for other people to earn some extra income. As the days went by the aunt began to change. She treated her nieces and nephews poorly, especially this boy who she physically and verbally abused. He worked as a mechanic to help earn more income for the family.

He is currently living in Chimaltenango with his father, sisters and brothers-in-law. He received help from ITEMP including clothes, shoes, educational support, medical treatment and economic support. He also helps his brothers-in-law fixing motorcycles and cars because he has liked working on vehicles since he was little.

The boy´s father has changed quite a bit after his accident and is grateful for the God´s Child Project and all of the support that we have provided for his son when he couldn´t provide for him. The boy is now in 5th grade and hopes to continue to improve his life.

She is a young woman that has had a life that no one would ever want. She came to the ITEMP program because she was sexually abused as a child. She says that when she was 7 years old her mother sold her to a 52 year old man because they didn´t have enough money. Her mother told her to go with the man and that she would go get her later. Years later her mother sold her again and the man abused her in exchange for money. Unfortunately the problem didn´t end there since, later, one of her step-brothers tried to abuse her.

At her young age she had already suffered a lot. She decided to leave home at the age of 14 because she found a young man who asked her to live with him when she was most vulnerable and in need of love. The only issue was that he already had three children but she didn´t care. All she wanted to do was forget what had happened to her.

She has now lived with that young man for three years. Everything was going well until the middle of 2012 when the young man, who worked as a taxi driver, was shot three times with a firearm. He was left unconscious for several days and unable to move his right arm. After being released from the hospital he was no longer able to work as a taxi driver.

In September of 2012 she entered as the 27th member of the ITEMP program. Upon entering the program she received psychological help, medical exams, shoes and clothes, and also economic help to help cover some costs and she was encouraged to continue her studies. She is very happy living with the young man since he has treated her the way a woman deserves to be treated and she plans to marry him and form a family.