Imagine This: You’re eleven years old when you visit Peru, your birth county. You are stunned by the poverty you find there. You especially want to help the kids in the orphanage where you were born. So what do you do?

 Who: You’re Ana Dodson, an 11-year-old student from Colorado.

What: The Peruvian Hearts Program

Where: Cusco, Peru

When: 2003 and still going strong!

This is the inspiring story of an 11-year-old girl who starts her own community service project called the Peruvian Hearts to help the orphans of Peru.

You’re born in Peru, but after your mother dies when you’re three years old, you’re adopted by American parents who live in Colorado. You’re very happy in Colorado, but you’ve always wanted to visit your homeland and, at eleven years of age, you return with your family to Peru for a visit. You’re shocked by the extreme poverty you find there, and you’re especially touched by the orphanages you visit.

You long to help the orphans who have had none of the advantages that you’ve had. You begin by collecting school supplies to send to the children in the orphanage where you were born and you also establish a pen pals correspondence between your Spanish class and the girls at the orphanage.

You also establish Peruvian Hearts, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping orphans in Peru, especially the orphan girls at the Hogar Orphanage in Cusco where you were born. Your goal is to provide them with education, clothing, and food, and most of all, hope for their futures. Your organization’s motto and goal is to change the world “one heart at a time.”

Today, the Peruvian Hearts program does all that and more. They have a scholarship program that pays for uniforms, school fees, and supplies for the girls as well as a collegiate scholarship fund named after Ana’s birth mother, Maria, who herself could not read or write.

There is also a library project which sends children’s books in Spanish to Peru and a tutor that comes to the orphanage to help the girls. They also have a lunch program to feed the children who walk several miles to school as well as a vitamin project that provides daily multivitamins to children who were previously malnourished.

Peruvian Hearts is also working to establish partnerships with medical missions to help provide health screenings and treatment. In four years, Peruvian Hearts, which began as a family-run charity, has given more than $100,000 worth of assistance.

Thank you, Ana, for caring enough to make a difference!

Postscript: CNN recently documented Ana’s work as a young hero and she has received a number of commendations for her part in making a difference in the world.

For More about Ana Dodson:

Something to Think about: Why do you think Ana was so affected by the plight of the Peruvian orphans?

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

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