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Dear all
We are writing with some very sad news from Colonia Ecologica. We did not want to include this in the main newsletter as it seemed inappropriate, and we felt it deserved its own space. We would of course love to be able to only give you good news, but life is not always like that, and we want to keep people informed of real events at Colonia, for better or for worse.
Just over a week ago, one of the residents at Colonia Ecologica, Marco, died of a heart attack while visiting his mother for a few days. It seems that he had a severe allergic reaction to a pill she had given him to treat his cold, and he passed away at 1pm on Sunday afternoon. This is obviously a very sad time for Kiko, Carmen and all the children at Colonia - they all attended his funeral last week and none of them could really believe that he was gone. However the children seem to be adjusting - for the most part they are resilient, strong children, made that way by the difficult lives many of them have led.
Marco was a very healthy, happy and industrious boy of 10 years old who was always busy helping Kiko with various tasks, or playing with his friends, and he always had a smile on his face. He had lived at Colonia for some time, and came from a very poor family for whom calling a doctor was a luxury they could ill afford. He will be sorely missed by Kiko and Carmen, who were his second parents, and by all his companions.
For so many of the poor in Bolivia, medical care is well beyond their means - they often do not have access to education and so remain ignorant of such allergies. It is difficult to say whether this tragic death could have been avoided, but it does seem very unlikely that Marco would have died in this way had he come from an affluent family. As Kiko said, it is always the children who are most affected by the poverty and ignorance which is so rife in the country. It is a tragedy that someone so young and in the prime of his life can die so suddenly and unexpectedly from such a simple mistake.
Something like this has really made us think about the differences between the lives of the people at Colonia and our own lives. It has made us more determined than ever to continue working to help them improve their standard of living and continue the wonderful work they are doing. We would like to thank all of you for your support and generosity, whether in the past, present or future, and to remind you that even a small donation can make a huge difference to the lives of children such as Marco.
Claire Hamnett and Gertjan Janszen
Charity Bolivia
(Newsletter No.3 - Aug 2005)
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