Mabel Navia
Mabel is an 18 month old infant who was born with a cardiological condition from birth. She had difficulty breathing from birth. She had something called Tetralogy of Fallot. This is a congenital defect in which the pulmonary artery, in this case, needs to be enlarged. In order to do so, the child requires open heart surgery.
Her parents, Isidoro Navia is a 40 year old agricultural worker and his mother Maribel (31 years old) works as a homemaker. They have two other children, 4 and 9 years old. They live in a far area of the Chapare, a tropical land not too distant from the city of Cochabamba. They live in a 2 room house made of brick, with a cement floor. They raise rice, palm, yucca and corn. At harvest they are able to bring in about 970 Bolivianos, about $140.
When they approached our offices in Cochabamba they told our social worker: "Nosotros somos gente pobre apenas ganamos para comer, nuestro chaquito es chiquito y lo que cosechamos es solo para el alimento de nuestros hijos, es muy difícil ahorrar y la gente no quiere prestar dinero a las personas como nosotros, solo Dios sabe como pasamos el día, por eso les pedimos que nos ayuden por favor."
"We are poor people who barely earn enough to eat. Our plot of land is small and what we harvest allows us to eat. It is very difficult to save any money and people do not want to lend to people such as us. Only God know how we get along, that is why we ask for your help, please."
Mabel was operated successfully in April by Dr. Benjo Gareca's team in Cochabamba. This surgery was made possible through the financial support of Dharma Trading Co. She has a good prognosis.