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She Loves the Little Children
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# : |
17062 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1990 |
2,837 Words |
| Author
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Marijane Schaefer
Marijane Schaefer is a writer living and working in
Washington, D.C. She recently returned form Honduras. |
In the small, mountainous country of Honduras, more than 40 percent of the nation's children are orphaned or abandoned. Of the 1.5 million children whose births are registered every year, 64 percent have no known father. These abandoned children make up Sister Maria Rosa's family - a family that she describes as "flourishing in all the world like a garden cultivated by the loving hand of God."
This woman is a short, round Franciscan nun with coffee-colored eyes that reflect an inner serenity, tempered by a hint of mischief. She is the founder of the Society of the Friends of the Children, the largest housing and educational program for orphans in Honduras.
Because of the personal magnetism she brings to her work, Sister Maria Rosa is regarded with wonder in her country. Under her loving care, thousands of children have moved out of the desperate cycle of poverty that has gripped the Honduran people for centuries and are living productive lives. Since 1967, she has cared for more than ten thousand homeless children. "But," she says, "I don't take too much credit. If you want to really live the Gospel, then you're supposed to do things like this, aren't you?"
Maria's Story
Maria Rosa Leggol was born in 1927 in El Paraiso, a small village on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Her father was a French-Canadian ship captain who came to Honduras and married a native woman. Maria was orphaned at five, when her father disappeared and her mother died.
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