Written By Kyla McClure – In the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala City, Guatemala; Luz Mila, 16, her mother, Lorena, and Dan, a Canadian international volunteer were waiting, praying and pacing back and forth while Dan’s father, Gord, talked with a representative in the visa booth. From what Dan could hear standing outside the door, it wasn’t sounding very good. Luz Mila and Lorena watched Dan’s every move as he shot them a tentative smile and thumbs up before turning his concentration back to the little room in which Gord and the Canadian Embassy representative were duking it out. This day represented the culmination of two years worth of effort; applying for passports, waiting on visa’s, choosing the best route to use to bring Luz Mila, a 16-year-old girl from the back roads of La Ceiba, Honduras to study just outside of the cosmopolitan city of Toronto, Canada.

Luz Mila grew up in a place that has no name. She grew up in a place of beauty, on the top of a mountain that looks out over the tropical rainforest of Honduras, out to the ocean and beyond. It’s a place that anyone who visits is overwhelmed by the remoteness and beauty of, not that there are many visitors. She grew up in a place where the closest neighbour is over an hour walk away, and the closest town, over three. There are no cars, no bikes, no transportation except for your own two legs. She used hers often, every day, walking for hours on end to attend the school that she knew was her ticket out of the poverty she was born into, but always returning home at the end of the day to her dirt floor, mud and stick walled house. Her home.

Those who meet Luz immediately see something special in her. They see it in the subtle way she cracks a joke or  the determination in her eyes, and know that she will use all opportunities provided to her to make a better life for her and her family. She already has in so many ways. The oldest of 6 children, Luz was the one to always usher the kids to school every day, waking up at 3 in the morning to begin chores and then have enough time to make the 2.5 hour trek down a narrow jungle path to the newly opened Jungle School, keeping an eye out for prowling jaguars along the way. In school she dedicated herself to her studies, finding time for homework in between helping her mother prepare the often scarce (sometimes non-existent) meal for the family. In 2009 she graduated top of her class, even completing fifth and sixth grade in the same year. This potential in Luz Mila was exactly what caught the eye of Daniel Collins on his first volunteer trip to Honduras in October of 2007.

Dan came down to Honduras working with an organization called Helping Honduras Kids (HHK). His plans were uncertain at best, but the general idea was to help out at a newly opened school for the winter months, in order to put on programs for the kids who went there giving them something to do daily and provide them with a basic meal, for many, the only one they would receive that day. The school serves kids who would otherwise have no chance at education, no chance for a way out of the extreme poverty they are accustomed to. Once there, he quickly discovered the Castro family, with Luz heading the brood. Though they lived perhaps the furthest away, they were always the family with the best attendance, only missing school if rain washed out the trail leading down the mountain. Dan saw the spark in Luz, saw the potential she had, and then a little light bulb went off in his head one day when they were working on a project with the kids called “Dream Flags”. Dan recalls, “the project was meant to get the kids thinking about the future, things they would like to do or be one day.” It was something the kids really struggled with, because so many of them had engrained in their minds that ‘no, I can’t do that’, ‘no, I’ll never be that’. Luz Mila was 13 at the time, and said to Dan “I know that education is the way I can help my family have food. I want to go to college to become a teacher, so that I can help teach other kids like me.”

What had started as a four month volunteer trip turned into a year before Dan returned to Canada. But he wasn’t finished with HHK or the amazing children he had met. After talking with his girlfriend Lisa, six months later the two of them were back in La Ceiba, this time with the sole intention of working with Luz Mila, to “work on her English”. The main reason, unknown to anyone but themselves and their family, was they wanted to see if Luz could possibly make the transition from life in the tropical mountain rainforest to country like Canada or the United States. They had decided that if it appeared she could make the adjustment, they would do everything in their power to provide her with the opportunity to continue her education, hopefully in Canada. They took her to the movies, brought her to restaurants, watched TV together, drilled her in English, and at the end of three months they had no doubt in their minds that she would “rock it”. Before leaving, Dan, Lisa, Luz Mila and Luz Mila’s parents sat down together. With a little trepidation, Dan and Lisa put their idea on the table, nervously waiting to see how Luz and her parents would react. The answer was an immediate, joyful and unhesitant “yes” from all parties. Her father José told them, “we don’t have the resources to be able to help Luz Mila get a good education, but if someone is willing to help our daughter, then we can only be supportive of  such an incredible opportunity, thank you for wanting to help.”

After that, everything was a matter of logistics. As easy as that sounds, it wasn’t. Honduras is a country with extremely strict control over areas such as adoption, mainly because of previous child trafficking problems that had permeated the country. Months of research went into what path they take to try and get her out of Honduras. They consulted David Ashby, Director for HHK, and together the group of them worked with Honduran lawyer, Javier Canales to figure things out. Finally it was settled that they would apply for a student visa with a little twist. The twist came because on a student visa, the student or sponsor has to pay for all education and healthcare in Canada, which is free to Canadian citizens. If the family could find out a way to make Luz a dependent under Gord and his wife, Cathy, who Luz would be living with, then she could go to high school for free, and later, to college, without having to pay international student fees. The problem was how? So the Collins’ did something that has never been done before in Honduras. It took nearly a year of going from judge to judge, but eventually they found one that would oversee the transfer of guardianship from Luz Mila’s parents to Gord and Cathy. Luz then got her proper documentation, a passport and gathered all the documents they would need to have the student visa approved. Which brings us back to the waiting room in the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala, waiting for Gord to emerge from the cubicle conference room.

Finally, after what Dan said seemed like an eternity, Gord came out with a relieved smile on his face, took a deep breath, looked right at Luz Mila and said “you, my girl, are going to Canada.” That moment was the epoch of everything, the moment when the trip that had been discussed for two years was finalized. Luz’s mom burst into tears, followed by Luz, and even Dan and Gord could not hold back their emotion as the dream for all involved was actually going to be realized.

Luz Mila Castro Velasquez, a 16-year-old Honduran superstar, five months later, is now in Canada living outside of Toronto with her “Canadian parents”, Gord and Cathy. She lives in a beautiful new home, with her own room and a closet full of clothes donated by all those who want to see her succeed. She saw snow for the first time, visited Niagara Falls and even went to a hockey game. She is adjusting well in a country where the temperature drops far below the 30°C she is used to, and the Collins’ are planning on turning her into a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Luz recently began classes at her brand new school, St. Matthew’s, and is quickly making new friends. She has the whole world in front of her, a community of people from all walks of life and past volunteers all over the world cheering for her to succeed. We are inviting you to become one of them. Sometimes amazing things do happen!

For more information about Helping Honduras Kids, the organization that started Luz on her incredible journey and helped her get to where she is, please visit www.helpinghonduraskids.org.

For more information on how Luz is progressing in Canada please contact AAV Director, Daniel Collins at info@allaccessvolunteers.com.

Check out a mini documentary that we put together portraying Luz’s inspiring determination and journey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSaVVtrAz0