Adriana Chacon is my cousin. She lives in El Salvador, just like I used to just a few months ago. In 2011, she was in her senior year of high school. In El Salvador it’s mandatory to do community service in order to graduate. She signed onto an organization called TECHO (roof). It all started by doing her hours of community service where she went to communities where poor people live. The people who were in TECHO made activities for the kids, and they brought food and clothes to the people. They were basically trying to make people happy at least for a minute.
After she graduated from high school she felt that there was more for her in TECHO. She kept working in TECHO because she felt that was her way to follow. She started to invite people from our church to be part of TECHO. TECHO had become a big organization by then. When she started attending university, she realized she wanted to be a psychologist. She was and is good at helping and listening to others and she likes doing that.
In 2015, her mom lost her job and had to come live here. She left Adriana and my other two cousins alone. Adriana had to find a job, go to college, and take care of my cousins. But even after all that had happened she was still in TECHO. That year was a tough one for her, but what made her stay strong was her faith in God and believing that he is the only one who has control over things.
Last year her mom told her that her siblings were about to come live with her here. She couldn’t come because she was over 18 and her siblings were still minors, so it’s easier for them to become a U.S citizen. Adriana was having a hard time but she told me that all her problems inspire her to help more and more. Having faith in God that soon she was going to be with her family. What she says is that “Everything happens for a reason, whatever life has for me I’m ready for it.”
Now my auntie and cousins are living here, but Adriana still cannot live here. Adriana also has become a better member of TECHO; she has built houses and goes to activities with kids with special needs. She also helps senior, and takes them on trips. She’s on her 3rd year of the university. She has found way and what she wants to do for the rest of her life. Being separated from her family was what she needed to find her way.
She comes every time she can. With a young boy from our church she has created a website called voces de mi pueblo (my village’s voices). The website contains the stories of many people who do the same thing as Adriana, help others. They’ll have different stories but with the same purpose. Adriana is my ideal of caring because she likes helping others, she likes listening to others without receiving nothing. Many people has made a lot of bigger things compared to what she has done, but you can start with something little to change the entire world.