Make a Miracle is embarking on our biggest and boldest project yet…The Miracle Wellness Center in San Antonio de Padua. The community donated a prime piece of land to us, with the goal of teaching their children the importance of helping others. This wellness center will bring hope to those who need it most, through medical, dental and animal care.
In January of this year we rented a huge bulldozer and dug out the rock for our building, then cleared the property for construction. Just weeks later all activity shut down due to the pandemic. During the lockdown many neighbors worked on their own lands. They dumped piles of dirt and rocks all over property, undermining our efforts. Giovanna and Rachel, our leaders in Peru, were quite upset. They looked for someone they could trust, to help protect our property, and found an unlikely helper in Giovanna’s husband, a moto taxi driver by trade. After we hired him, he parked himself on the land and we noticed he had a different outlook on our situation. He said it was actually a blessing that people dumped dirt and rocks on our land and that we could use it do fill in our retaining wall. His positive attitude brought him to the property every morning at 5am, cleaning, clearing and guarding our investment. He got to know everyone in the community and halted many others in the coming weeks from also dumping on our land.
The community began to call him “vecino” or neighbor. Giovanna said all of a sudden, her quiet husband was a “social butterfly” because of all his new contacts. He suggested we invest in a cement mixer, in lieu of hand mixing the cement for our enormous retaining wall, which we could also use many years in the future for the houses we build. He negotiated a great deal, so good that Giovanna & Rachel thought he may have bought damaged goods. It would prove to work great…so great that the wall was done in only 6 weeks instead of the projected 12. Our scholarship students showed up to provide the manpower for this Wellness Center they know will change the lives of thousands. All of this was done in the time of a global pandemic, with Peru being the hardest hit in the entire world. Such a miracle.
Every day Froylan gets up early in the morning to make sure the cement mixer is safe and no one touches our property. With phase one complete, his inspiration for the project is shining through as he is proposing gardens, benches and terrace areas. Make a Miracle has commissioned Froylan to supervise the construction crews, making sure they are working as they should, retrieving supplies for them, giving them food and drinks. He has an attachment to the property and what it will do for the community and the future of his people. Together we will build the Miracle Wellness Center.