More Than an Organization, We Are a Family, a Community, a Home

By Mary Maldonado

I came to TLC and I found a second family with whom I grew up in different areas of our lives. We laughed and we cried and we had fun together.  They are my favorite people and those who have made it all worthwhile.  My life change since I arrived at The Leadership Center.  I learned that I am able to achieve all my goals and dreams if I work hard and I am persistent.  TLC believed in me even when many other people told me that I was not going to achieve anything.  In this place, I found myself and discovered my passion for community development and education.  At TLC I developed my leadership skills and I obtained the necessary tools to go to my community and start something really important there and chance the lives of many people.  I know I do not need money to help my community and to be a leader.  TLC taught me that what we do for ourselves dies with us, but what we do for others and the world remains and it is immortal.  That is the legacy that I want to live in my community and that is exactly what the leadership Center is doing in the lives of many young women in Honduras.  The teachings, and the encouragement that we received are engraved in our minds and hearts and hit is hoe our lives in The Leadership Center will be remembered not only by the students but also our families and friends.

My experience at TLC can say that it has been the best in my life because they really helped me know my value and my abilities as a woman and as a human being.  I leave TLC with my backpack full of dreams and goals to fulfill. I know that I will always have the support of the people I met at TLC; I consider them my family now.  They have taught me that to live is to be present at every moment and that life always gives us a thousand reasons to smile and to be grateful.  TLC change my life and has motivated me to be brace, God fearing, persistent and compassionate with those in need.  Here I have received love, understanding, friends and words of encouragement when I needed them most.  In a few worlds, TLC is a life changer and empower women to believe in themselves and to be agents of change in Honduras. “