My name is Isabel and I am 14 years old. Now I have someone who stands for me.
I was born in the Andes and I come from a really poor family. As it is for many of the girls in my village, my destiny was already decided: I had to drop out of school and leave my village to find work in the city. It was horrible. I was forced to work all day long and I only slept a few hours a night on a mat in the basement. When I did something wrong they would yell and slap me. They didn’t let me go to school. They said there was no point for a poor girl like me to study. But the worst part was that my boss was abusing me. I was so scared, and I was ashamed.
I put up with it and I lived as a slave until finally one day I decided to talk with a woman who had already tried to help me many times before. She was a worker from Friend of Terre des Hommes. I told her everything and she protected me. Now I am free, and I can stand up for the girls that need help.
There are still hundreds of girls that are denied the right to live a happy childhood.
Isabel.