Rosaisela Sanabria

Rosaisela, a 3 year old girl, was born with a hole in the walls between the ventricles of her heart. Her parents come from the rural area of Cochabamba and decided to emigrate to Santa Cruz (a city of 1,500,000) because of her health and it being the place where an operation could be possible. Her father, Rene, works as an agricultural day laborer and makes between 45 and 50 bolivianos a day. That is the equivalent of $6.50 to $7.25 per day. They have two other teenage daughters, a 15 and a 13 year old and in order to take care of Rosaisela; Margarita, the mother, stays at home. They rent two rooms in the outskirts of the city for $50 a month.

Since birth Rosaisela has been very ill. She will have coughing fits that turn her purple and is very prone to bronchopneumonia. She has had to spend a good deal of time in various hospitals.

"When it is hot here (most of the time) she gets fatigued and her chest begins to make a noise like before. We always got her the necessary vaccines hoping this would heal her, but it did not. We do not have family here since all are from Aiquiles (small town in the state of Cochabamba) and we feel alone."

Rosaisela was operated in May of 2009 and is doing very well. This surgery was made possible through the financial support of Dharma Trading Co.

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