Heather Latter
For Tylyn Silander, words cannot express her experience working with children in Peru over the past month.
“I can’t even describe it,” voiced the 18-year-old Fort Frances resident. “It was amazing. It was definitely life-changing. Just how something little like a sticker totally makes a child’s day.”
Silander returned last week after participating in World Vision’s “Destination Life Change” program, where she assisted with the El Milagro project—an ongoing community development task focused on benefitting sponsored children.
Silander sponsors two children in Peru—one her family has sponsored for the past six years—and she was able to meet them both.
“I almost wanted someone to pinch me to make sure I was awake,” she explained of meeting young Ana Maria. “She is the most amazing little girl.”
Silander noted Ana Maria’s first question to her was “When are you coming back?”
She gave the child a backpack full of stickers, clothing and school supplies, which Silander said she loved.
“But she was so upset that she didn’t have anything to give me,” she recalled, citing Ana Maria gave her own snack of cookies, provided by World Vision, to her.
“So I still have my cookies at home because I can’t eat the present,” she giggled.
Silander also met four-year-old Marco Antonio, whom she helped to teach to write his name.
She picked up Spanish quickly and was able to understand most of what was being said. She could even carry on a conversation with the children.
“It wasn’t a fun trip,” she remarked. “But the fun part was getting to play with the children.”
She indicated they did a lot of work with the children, offered a photography workshop, helped some of the animals there, and helped purchase a couple of nebulizers to treat children there with asthma.
She also provided a family with some money to help buy medication for their daughter who suffers from West Syndrome (a rare epileptic disorder in infants).
Silander indicated the father, who quite his job in order to stay home and take care of his daughter, had tears in his eyes.
“He was so full of joy that we actually came to the house and that someone actually cared about his daughter,” she expressed.
“It was very emotionally and mentally draining, but I wasn’t ready to come home. There is still so much more work to do,” she stressed.
World Vision also assists five children in the community with special needs to attend school.
“They have a vehicle that picks all the children up and they stay with them all day to make sure nothing happens,” Silander voiced. “That was amazing to see because I want to go into special needs.”
Silander had decided back in March to apply for the World Vision program because she has always wanted to change the world.
“Some people told me I couldn’t and I just said watch me. This is my chance to help others and to prove I can change the world,” she reasoned. “I don’t care if it starts small.”
Having had a difficult four years in high school, Silander saw the trip to Peru as a chance to be herself.
“It confirmed what I knew,” she said. “I knew that it’s a good thing that I am the way I am. And I want to thank those people that bullied me and made fun of me because, if it wasn’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be who I am and wouldn’t have made the changes I did in these children and the changes they made in me.”
Not only have her previous difficulties at school changed the way she looks at things, but she was able to understand how some of the children there felt.
“When they were saying they didn’t fit in, I truly knew what they meant and then they didn’t feel so different,” she added.
Silander wants to continue to help children and noted she’s “definitely not staying put for long.”
She also wants people here to learn from her experience in Peru.
“It has taught me not to take things for granted,” she expressed. “My advice to people is don’t hold back and live each moment for what it’s worth.”
She is planning to offer up presentations to students at local schools, as well as to provide some public ones.
“I just want to thank the community so much for all the support,” Silander emphasized.
She had held several fundraisers prior to her trip in order to afford the several thousand dollar price tag it took to go.
Several locals also had agreed to sponsor children in Peru.
“I don’t even know where to start to say ‘Thank you,’” she added. “To me, ‘Thank you’ doesn’t justify what they did for me.”
Silander indicated her life goal is to travel and help children in Third World countries. But for now, she will begin studying child and youth development at Confederation College this fall.
“The biggest thing is that the children think we are changing their lives dramatically, which is amazing, but in turn, they are changing us, too,” she expressed.
