Building A Church in Argentina!
My Travel Story
What can you do to change the world? It is one of the biggest questions I have been asked, and I never have a perfect answer. My inner being wishes I could do something great that causes significant change, but my realistic self knows that goal is not accomplished easily, so what can I do to change the world? I can start small and transform communities.
My name is Leah Noemi Galvez Valencia. I was born and raised in Denver, CO. I graduated class of 2016 from Lotus School for Excellence Highschool and class of 2020 from the University of Colorado Boulder. I majored in Psychology, minored in Sociology with certificates in Public Health and Health, Care, and Resilience. The irony of it all is that I am quite an introvert, but my college education shows I am a people person. I love studying people and learning about their cultures and history, and this offers my unique feature, which is my heart for the people. Physically speaking, I am ordinary and have a face that mixes in with the crowd. However, my heart speaks volumes, and is always willing to help someone in need.
To understand how I came to be this way, you must understand my history. I come from immigrant Salvadoran and Honduran parents. My Salvadoran mother went to the US fleeing from war, and my Honduran father fleeing from poverty, but both came looking for a better life. I have always admired their perseverance to better themselves, but overall, I admire how they give back. When they had a lovely home, a legal status, and were financially stable, they always found ways to give back. When we would travel to Honduras and El Salvador, my parents always took extra money, clothes, and food to help out the communities in need. They even taught me to get extra candies to give the children. One time, my mother bought me a stack of lollipops, and I gave every one of them away. I cried because I had no lollipops left, but my mother taught me that the happiness the children felt from having been given a lollipop was more rewarding than the lollipop itself. They found ways to give back at home as well. Whenever there was someone in need of anything, my parents were always the first to help. There was a lady one time with four children, and she was homeless. We had a fairly big home for just the three of us, so my parents opened up our house and gave her shelter until she could stand on her own feet.
My parents taught me how to give back, but I always felt like I was in their shadow. I gave back because of them but never indeed for myself. Thus, I am motivated to volunteer abroad because I want to find a way to give back on my account. I want to be present for communities in need.
I found a way to do so through the Apostolic Youth Corp. or AYC. I was born into the Pentecostal Apostolic faith. It has formed a considerable part of my identity, so being able to give back using that part of my identity is incredible. For AYC, my team and I will be traveling to Argentina and helping a community in need of a physical church structure. We will go and help build the church with them and support them through the whole process.
I can tie in my past experiences of learning how to give back. My parents taught me, but now I can do what I was taught and implement it through a new volunteer experience. Knowing that giving my time and energy will be rewarded with the happiness of a community that was in need but is a step closer to a goal accomplished is all that matters.
How then can I change the word? It’s by accomplishing the small helping goals! One volunteer trip, one person, one community, one country, one world at a time. My ultimate goal is to help as many people as possible and give back to the world, but I will only accomplish that one step at a time.
-
Campaign Ended
$ 0 USD
Total Donation Received-
0%
Funded -
$ 3,600 USD
Goal Amount -
0
Days Left
-
-
Cost Calculator
-
Program Fee
$ 3,600
-