NPC 4 Poverty

The Story of Carlos

              Carlos grew up with four brothers and two sisters in Cartago; he was the 1^th one to come into the world in 1964. When he was six years old his father died, and six years later, his mother too; they moved with a very old aunt and she was enable to work, so at this age he became a father for his brothers and sisters, and he started worked in a shoe store. Every day, when he finished the work in the shoe store, he helps doing many things in the neighborhood, for example, “do mandados” (deliveries), and the neighbors paid him with food most of the times. One day, one of the neighbors called David, who knew his situation, told him: Because your condition, you must start thinking in your future and your family future too, I know it is too difficult to be the person who maintains your family at your age, but it is extremely necessary for you to start to study again in order to get a better way to be out of poverty. David was finishing Medicine Mayor, so he started teaching Carlos all what he could about how to be a good doctor, and once he became a real doctor, he asked Carlos to work with him as an assistant, at this moment Carlos was eighteen. Because his new job, Carlos realized how much he like the medicine and he start studying Medicine in the UCR when he was twenty, after finishing the “Bachillerato por madurez”. Because his extremely bad economic situation, the university gave him a “scholarship” to help him complete the studies. He worked very hard to be a student and give support to his family at the same time, and because the inspiration the study was for him, he takes another work in the university to pay his brothers and sisters education too; the younger of his brothers at this time was ten. When he was twenty five, all his brothers and sisters finished primary school. The time step over and now Carlos is a very well recognized doctor in the country and all his brothers and sisters are very good professionals. This is a real example of no matter how difficult the situation can be, everything have a solution, and the better way to do it is only with effort, patience, and love.