In this season of celebrating holidays and the blessings of family, friends and home, 17-year-old Monica Chica has a story that sends a message of hope for all ages.
The Springbrook High School student and native of El Salvador shares the experiences that have shaped her young life in a recent Children's Defense Fund Child Watch Column by Marian Wright Edelman entitled “Learning to Love What You Have.”
Edelman wrote that Monica “has an attitude about choosing to be grateful that’s wise far beyond her years: ‘The most important lesson I learned is that being happy is not about having with you what you loved in the past, but learning to love what you have in the present.’”
Hear Monica’s story in her own words.
The Children's Defense Fund grew out of the Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of Marian Wright Edelman. The CDF website states that the organization has for decades "… partnered with numerous organizations and worked with policy makers to build bipartisan support to enact laws that have helped millions of children fulfill their potential and escape poverty because they received the health care, child care, nurturing, proper nutrition and education they deserve.”
