Miguel's dream

“Life is not easy, and as children we have faced many people treading on our dreams. But with my songs I am saying that whoever you are and whatever has happened to you, you can live your dreams.”

Miguel Arevalos has helped to lead several nationwide campaigns against child abuse, he is a singer and songwriter for a local band and he will soon begin presenting his own TV show, broadcast to 150,000 people in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Miguel is also just about to celebrate his 15th birthday.

“My father left us when I was seven” Miguel confides quietly. “He was very bad with alcohol problems and so angry, it was hard for us and for my mother.” When he abandoned them, Miguel’s mother was forced to send his two sisters to live in a local orphanage while she and Miguel sheltered at a boys’ home that is part of the Cochabamba network. Yet it was here that he had the chance to become a Child Leader. “We had a vote, and out of six others I was chosen to be the representative for our project” smiles Miguel, proudly remembering his peers’ faith in him. “I was our ambassador, our leader, and it was my job to plan how we could make our community listen and take notice of the needs of children like ourselves.”

Approximately 100 boys and girls from various projects in Viva’s six Bolivian networks are participating in the Child Leaders programme, collectively representing more than 10,000 young people across the nation. The programme trains up and supports young people like Miguel to be a voice for their peers, helping them to plan campaigns and events to change local people’s attitudes to domestic violence and child abuse, mobilising them to change children’s situations.

Since first becoming a Child Leader, now over four years ago, Miguel has spoken out for others in a variety of different ways, beginning with the network campaigns and growing into singing, songwriting and now television presenting. His band, Tuex, is made up of three boys and two girls all under the age of 18. Miguel says that it is his vision that one day their songs will be played all over the city, “in market squares and discos and all the popular places, speaking out against things such as violence, abortion and abuse.”

Miguel’s songs will also feature in his new television show, due to air in April this year, alongside music from other local bands, interviews with Christian leaders and information on issues in other countries. Miguel says he wants to inspire local children to look outside their situations and see the needs of the wider world, as well as encourage them about their own lives.

As Miguel’s leadership skills have grown and changed, so has his family. His mother is now one of the co-ordinators of the boy’s home where they once sheltered, and the modest income she receives has enabled the whole family to live together once more. “I am so thankful to God for my life” Miguel concludes gratefully. “Before I was a Child Leader I would never have had the courage to do any of these things, or even dream them. But being taught about my value to God and how I should be treated, and actually seeing positive change in my situation, gave me such confidence and hope.”
Thanks to Miguel that message, speaking of confidence in your dreams and hope for the future, will be carried into homes all over Cochabamba this year.

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