Poverty relief
Founder of God’s Child Project speaks in FDBy IAN SCHMIT
Messenger staff writer
At age seven, Louis Enrique Perez's mother, a prostitute, told him and the six oldest of his ten siblings they would have to leave.
Living in the slums of Guatemala, she told them she could not afford to feed them, and could no longer afford to care about them.
From there, Perez was living on the streets.
He slept under a park bench, waking up each morning to clean himself in the fountain and change from his one dirty pair of clothes to his one relatively clean pair of clothes.
Despite his poverty, Perez continued to go to school. When he got out of school he would shine shoes all afternoon so that he could afford his one meal a day - and then he would return to under the park bench to sleep for the night.
This continued for a time, until a North Dakotan man by the name of Patrick Atkinson sat down at a city park bench, and stepped on Perez's arm.
Perez, not knowing the man crushing his arm would was about to potentially save his life, gave him a little pinch.
"I thought I was bit by a rat," said Atkinson.
Atkinson was then serving as a volunteer in Guatemala in 1983 - which, at the time, he believed would be his one and only trip.
The only Spanish he knew was 'taco,' 'burrito,' and 'enchilada.'
He had no idea that he would found the God's Child Project in 1991, which now serves 5,000 children worldwide, providing them with shelter, food and an education.
He had no idea he was going to personally adopt 17 poverty stricken children.
At the time, he only knew that this homeless boy needed help, and so he helped him, giving him shelter and food that those who cared enough to donate the money to a cause had bought - which made all the difference.
The young boy who Atkinson thought was a rat became a doctor. In fact, Atkinson said Perez is now the head of pediatrics for the national hospital system of Guatemala.
This is the story Atkinson told a packed room of students and Holy Trinity parishioners Sunday evening at St. Edmond High School. A story not only of the difference he made, but of the difference each and every person can make.
"We're picking up children who are two and three-years-old who weigh eleven or twelve pounds," he said. "There was a ten year old boy who weighs 30 pounds. Thirty pounds is a bag of sugar!"
Atkinson encouraged the audience to participate in volunteer trips such as the one made by St. Edmond students in March, where they built homes and distributed food in San Felipe, near the city of Antigua.
"You can change the world in two weeks," he said, "we need you."
Simply pouring a concrete floor in a home, which costs around $120, can reduce the chances of disease by 70 percent, said Atkinson.
Simply by educating one mother, and giving her the skills she needs to raise her children, can save a whole family, he said.
Ninety percent of the children within God's Child Project graduate from high school.
"One half of one percent of the boys and girls (in Guatemala) graduate from high school, look at the difference," he said, "Half of our boys and girls go on to college. One tenth of one percent of boys and girls (in Guatemala) go on to college."
One of the most important things Atkinson has learned from this, he said, is the importance of love.
"Don't be afraid to tell your children that you love them," he said. "Kids are dying to hear those words and so many kids go their entire childhood and don't hear that."
For more information or to donate to God's Child Project go to www.godschild.com .
Contact Ian Schmit at (515) 573-2141 or ischmit@messengernews.net
