Angel of the Andes

By: Bernadette Mooney

In the town of Cochabamba, Bolivia, children are being fed, sheltered, and taken care of by an organization called Amanecer, which means sunrise. Since its humble beginnings, it has grown and now includes “an orphanage for abandoned infants, overnight and long-term shelters for boys and girls, a daycare center and retreat for battered women, a school and finally a manual training institute that includes working with computers” (Marion A. Ellis). Since the government shut down its orphanage in Cochabamba the Amanecer program is the only support for these children. There are very few other options for these children besides living on the streets peddling cocaine-paste cigarettes. But who is the person behind this wonderful institution? The answer is Hallahan’s own Sr. Stephanie Murray. A sister of charity, Sr. Stephanie founded Amanecer in 1981 to house 14 boys and with her help, it grew and flourished into what it is today. “Sister Stephanie and her staff see more tragedy in one day than most Americans see in their entire life. There is Efrain whose mother tried to kill him when he was three. There’s Estella whose mother died at the age of 24 and left Estella a four-year-old orphan. Palmella has been to and from the streets more than 100 times. Another child was rescued after being left chained every day. There are children who were left at the bus station or ran away from cruel treatment or simply left because there was nothing to eat” (Marion A. Ellis). Sr. Stephanie joined the Sisters of Charity when she was 20 and she was educated in St. Joseph’s College in Maryland and earned a master's degree in nursing from Boston College. Pope Pius XII asked the Sisters of Charity to start doing work in South America so she went to Bolivia in 1963, not knowing the language, and having never left the US. In Bolivia, she started a nursing school and took over a leper colony before starting Amanecer. Sr. Stephanie was given the Ambassador’s Award for Distinguished Service from the U.S. Embassy in La Paz. She died February 16, 2006, at age 84 and was buried in Cochabamba.

Dedicated to Mary Murray-Kilpatrick

Works Cited

“Amanecer.” Idealist, www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/871d0e84b0d041b9bdda6dd828efd9d1-amanecer-cochabamba.

“Bolivian Street Children Glimpse `a Future'. The Frontier City of Cochabamba Is Awash with Abandoned Youth, but Amanecer Is There to Provide Shelter...” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 July 1987, www.csmonitor.com/1987/0716/hkids.html.

Ellis, Marion A. “Bolivia's ‘Angel of the Andes’ Works to Save Street Children.” Rider Orthodontics, 9 May 2013, riderorthodontics.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/bolivias-angel-of-the-andes-works-to-save-street-children/.

“Free and Low Cost Opportunities to Volunteer Abroad.” Volunteer with AMANECER in Bolivia, www.vaops.com/south-america/bolivia/amanecer.aspx.