For the last 20 years Charity Anywhere Foundation has helped volunteers go into poor areas and help on medical/dental expeditions or have worked with volunteers build and repair homes in poor neighborhoods in Central and South America and Mexico. There goal was to provide better homes and better medical advantages for those who were struggling in poverty. There have many stories to be told. But this one helped the volunteers to understand that their service was more than providing a better place to live.

Many years ago a religious group came to a poor village in Mexico. They worked together to build homes for some of those who desperately needed adequate places to live. A little girl named Juana lived in that village. Her family was very poor and lived in very challenging circumstances. She knew she was poor and would never be able to raise her head above poverty. Her eyes were cast down because she thought she had no worth. But that year these wonderful people from America came again and chose her family to assist. They spent many days hammering and pounding and painting. To her amazement, they build a nice house for her family where they could live and be safe. The Americans were smiling and playing with her. She was so happy. She began to think that if these wonderful people would build a house for her family that she must be important afterall. She thought that maybe she was an important person.

The years went by and little Juana changed her attitude and her thinking. She worked very hard so that she could go to school. In school she studied every day so that she would do well and could get a job to help her family and others. She realized that she was smart and could learn hard things. As she finished high school she determined that she wanted to be a dentist. She knew she could do it. She continued to study and work hard and soon she graduated dental school.

Dr. Juana Ramirez now works in her own office in the outskirts of Tijuana. She said that she knows how important it is to have Americans come to help. She now donates some of her time to work with the students and families who come to her area with Charity Anywhere Foundation. She wants others to have the same experience that she had. She wants other children to know that they have value and can do great things. Thanks to Dr. Ramirez, many families are able to have free dental care through CAF and their volunteers. She said that she hopes that there will be a brighter future to all those that experience the generosity of these young Americans. She envisions the changes one child at a time.