Álvaro is the youngest of 5 siblings – two girls, three boys. They do not know each other well because they were taken to different homes. Álvaro knows the problem was their parents: "They never got married, and they would fight a lot. My father carried fruit to the market and drank too much, while my mother peeled garlic. We were very poor and almost every year a little brother was born."
As it was impossible to support the family, Álvaro's parents waited until he was 13 for him to be able to enter the "Don Bosco House" in the district of Breña, in Lima. "But I did not want to reach that age, I did not want to grow up." And yet through the years Álvaro understood that leaving home was a way to help his parents.
His first months in the "House of Don Bosco" were very sad. His mother went to visit him every Sunday, but he could not prevent every goodbye from turning into a sea of tears ...
Little by little, he became accustomed to the environment, until he became a young man who was proud of having grown up and been raised in the "Don Bosco House". The meeting with Don Bosco taught him much. "His life - Álvaro notes - was difficult since his father died, and he was just 3 years old; but we cannot remain stuck in the past, God helps us to look to the future with hope."
Currently, after completing his secondary studies and his training as Administrative Technician, he started working to put some money aside and so continue to study and help his family.
"Meeting with Don Bosco, who becomes part of your life, is something that changes the future," concludes Álvaro, who has become a young optimist who does not forget his past and who wants to help other children who grow up in the homes of the Don Bosco Foundation of Peru.
