![]() ![]() ![]() We quickly formed a small, highly motivated group and decided we would help her return home, no matter what it took.Īnd all it took was determination, love and creativity. Grace, Anilù, Maria Luisa and I joined forces. ![]() I tried to imagine what it could mean to lie in a hospital bed, in a foreign country, unable to speak or move or ask, with no money, attention or resources. I thought no human being should go through the loneliness and powerlessness Elsabie was experiencing, no matter what she had done. I was deeply touched by the story of Elsabie and when I met her at the hospital, my heart shrank. Then, together with Anilù, we went to the hospital to meet Elsabie and Maria Luisa. She invited me to her place to talk the situation over. Through my husband, who works for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, I was made aware of the situation and put in contact with Grace. She immediately talked to Anilù, a philanthropic friend of hers who loved to do good for others, and she had the idea of writing to the South African Red Cross to see if they could provide some kind of support. She had met Elsabie in prison, and was devastated to learn from the TV programme what had happened to her. Grace, a US-citizen who had spent several months in prison in Lima, was watching TV one night when she suddenly saw Elsabie’s face. Let me now take you into a house in a rich neighbourhood in Lima. She visited her once a week and made sure she had the proper treatment and physiotherapy. Maria Luisa was a warm and practical woman, and did what she could to give Elsabie a sense of not being totally abandoned. The only person visiting her was a volunteer from an association helping people with HIV/AIDS in Lima. The stroke had left her completely paralyzed on her left side: she could not speak, her left arm rested under her breast, and her left leg was curved so that her foot touched her knee.Įlsabie was pardoned by the Peruvian government, but could not leave the country: she had no money, no visa, nobody to take care of her case and help her repatriate. She regained consciousness but was not the same woman. She was taken to the biggest public hospital in Lima, where she was diagnosed with AIDS. Two years went by before she had a stroke that sent her into a coma. When Elsabie was caught, she was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail to be served in a womens’ prison on the outskirts of Lima. At that time she was working as a waitress in a bar at Durban harbour. She did whatever she could to make ends meet. When she accepted the risky but well-paid task of being a mule from Peru to South Africa, she was in her thirties and had three children and an abusive husband who was in and out of prison. As a matter of fact, she had been used by dealers to divert the attention of customs police, thus allowing bigger amounts of drugs to slip out of the country.Įlsabie did not know this. South African, she had been caught smuggling a couple of kilos of cocaine out of Peru. The story I am about to tell you speaks exactly of this: The person I made in contact with and helped in a terrible moment of her life, was the kind of person I otherwise never keep company with, seek out or share my experiences abroad with.Įlsabie was a mule. L ife tends to separate rather than unit e us, so these stories need to be told.Īs I explained in my article “ How contact with local realities can spur your empathy”, I am grateful for the kind of life which my husband’s job has given me, because through it I have been able to meet people who literally changed my vision of life and who also made me discover a lot about myself, my potential and my empathic skills. Trying to imagine their feelings, no matter what they have done and in what situation they find themselves in, can lead to beautiful act ion s and results. Practising empathy means trying to understand people of totally different backgrounds and situations. We have decided to publish the story of Elsabie because it has been a great opportunity for Claudia, while she was living in Peru, to test her ability to e mpathis e with a person who had nothing whatsoever to do with Claudia’s l ife, values and principles, and who was considered a criminal and an outcast from society. ![]()
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