2009 Opus Prize Recipient

Association Solidarité Femininé - Aicha Ech Channa
Asociación Hogares Luz y Vida - Sister Valeriana García-Martín
Fazenda da Esperança - Father Hans Stapel

2009 Opus Prize Finalist
Sister Valeriana García-Martín
Asociación Hogares Luz y Vida

Sister Valeriana García-Martín is founder and director of the Asociación Hogares Luz y Vida, which cares for 145 physically and mentally handicapped children and educates or provides day care services for 850 children from the community.

García-Martín, a native of Spain, was working as a Sister of Filipense at the National Institute for Blind Children in Bogotá in 1991 when she opened a home for four abandoned handicapped infants.

“At the beginning, I was scared,” she says. “I asked myself, ‘How am I going to feed these kids?’ One of the first things I did in the house was to build a chapel, and I went in and talked to God. I told him, ‘You selected me to do this. You have to help me. The only thing I ask for is food for the children, and I will take care of everything else.’ He has lived up to his word.”

She established Hogares Luz y Vida – Homes of Light and Life – which has expanded to eight locations in the Bogotá area, including an elementary school and day care centers that integrate high functioning and handicapped children.

García-Martín chose the name because even blind children need light and life, and they receive those through unconditional love. “Some will not be able to walk or go to school, but they deserve to be held with love,” she says. “If you are going to give a hug, do it with love. If you are going to change a diaper, do it with love. If you do not do things with love, it is better not to do them at all.”

García-Martín adopted two girls, both Luz y Vida residents under her care, in the 1990s. Blind and at the age of 25, Valeriana is studying in Spain. Rosita, who cannot speak and is wheelchair-bound because of cerebral palsy, is 18 and attends the Luz y Vida school.