Hace unas semanas regresé con el equipo de Hands With Heart a visitar a un hombre de 73 años al que llevamos siguiendo desde hace tres años en territorio indígena Bribri, en Talamanca, Costa Rica. Sabíamos que su pierna había empeorado mucho durante los últimos meses. Lo que no sabíamos era que, desde nuestra última visita, su mujer también había sufrido una amputación por debajo de la rodilla.
There is one border you cross with a document, and another you cross with memory. For us, entering Ukraine for the fifteenth time since 2022 belongs to the second category. Four years after that first journey, crossing the border again no longer simply means returning to a country at war. It means returning to people, places and faces that have become part of a story we have been building, mission after mission.
Over the past decade, we have learned that our greatest achievements cannot be measured by numbers alone. They are measured by people. By children who discovered new possibilities. By families who found hope. By volunteers whose lives were transformed as much as those they came to serve. At Hands With Heart, many of our missions are named after the very people who inspired them. Behind every mission is a child, a family, or a community whose story reminds us why we do what we do.
For years, the Carlos Luis Valle Masís Special Education Center in Cartago, Costa Rica, has been much more than a place of learning for Samuel Elizondo. It is where he has found therapy, encouragement, and people who believe in his potential. Samuel lives with cerebral palsy, a condition that affects the mobility of part of his hip and requires ongoing care. Behind every step forward are years of perseverance, dedication, and the unwavering support of his mother, Angie Ortiz.
At Hands With Heart, we have carried out more than 85 missions in different hostile and isolated areas. In our quest to reach places where no one else goes, to offer disabled people a minimum of care and respect, I have repeatedly seen misery up close. And I have also seen indifference in response to that misery; hands tucked into pockets while life passes by...
