I have always believed that things in life do not happen by chance, but that instead everything has a reason and a purpose. In 2007, due to a very important event in my own life, I felt that I had to give something back in return for everything life had given me, because the fact is that after giving it some thought I understood just how lucky I was to have been born at this time and in this country. I also realised that I had the time and the desire to help other people and, selfishly I admit, that was going to make me very happy, and so indeed it has.

It so happened that someone I occasionally lent a hand on this quest to help the Turkana people called me to arrange a get-together at a cafeteria in Madrid one November afternoon in 2008 so that I could meet two aspiring young priests from the community of missionaries who live and work in Turkana.

The meeting lasted around half an hour and those two people managed to make me see how that area suffered from a general lack of resources; they started talking about the scarcity of water and ended up showing me a document about the project for building a school for 250 children in a village called Kokuro.

As soon as that person showed me the document I felt inside me that I had found what I had been seeking for a whole year and that that person had come a long way to see me and personally hand me something that I could touch and see.

As I drove home in my car I felt so happy that rarely have I experienced such a feeling of peace and happiness as I did on that 20-minute journey.

That’s how it happened and I’ve wanted to tell you because I’d love you to feel the same as I do helping other people, not necessarily to have more opportunities but to have the same ones as we do, respecting their culture and traditions.

Through this weblog you will be able to follow the project’s progress, getting to know the Turkana people and the people who help them and live alongside them, and you will be able to tell your children and other people you know so that they too can become involved in the project.

Silvia Florez