Buckner helps Guatemalan boy blinded in one eye

Oseas Morroquin—who had been injured in an accident—has a prosthetic eye now, thanks to the Buckner Family Hope Center.

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SAN JOSE PINULA, Guatemala—Oseas Morroquin was playing in the yard with his older brother in the quiet community of San Luis Puerta Negra in San Jose Pinula, Guatemala, when a life-changing accident occurred.

Six-year-old Emanuel found a machete and swung it around playfully, pretending to mow the lawn. Interested, 4-year-old Oseas tried to get closer to watch, and the tip of the machete pierced Oseas’ right eye.

When she heard their screaming and cries, Aracely Marroquin Tortolia, the boys’ mother, frantically raced outdoors. She found Oseas’s eye bleeding profusely.

She contacted her husband, Edwin Rolando Marroquin, at his job, and they went together to the hospital.

“It was very difficult,” she said with tears running down her cheek. “And thank God, my husband was here.”

Oseas was hospitalized for a week and had several checkups with an ophthalmologist for the following month. Although the doctors tried everything, Oseas was blinded, and his eye continued to deteriorate.

“That was something that was very hard to accept,” his mother said. “I didn’t know it had been that bad of an accident. I started crying. I started praying to have the means to be able to accept that.”

As the years went by, Oseas suffered. The bones around his right eye grew slower than his left side, causing his face to deform. Doctors said the condition would worsen as he got older. A prosthetic eye would help, but that would cost 5,000 quetzales—equivalent to about $650.

Oseas’ parents were devastated. Alhough his father had a stable job in construction, they couldn’t afford it.


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Emotionally, Oseas was having a difficult time, as well. Children in his school made fun of him, calling him names and teasing him about his eye. Often, he came home crying, begging his mother not to send him back to school.

About this time, his mother started attending a sewing class offered by the Buckner Family Hope Center in San Jose Pinula. As the family continued to participate in the Hope Center programs, Buckner Family Coach Lesbia Castillo worked on a family plan to improve the Marroquin’s financial, spiritual and physical health.

Osea’s mother told Castillo about his need for a prosthetic. The Hope Center was able to provide funds for the operation.

Since getting the prosthetic eye, Oseas, now 8, is much happier and is improving in his schoolwork.

“I know these blessings are because of those people who came here to pray. I’m very, very thankful,” his mother said. “God is very good.”

Since the Marroquin family has entered family coaching, they have improved their physical and spiritual health.

“We have seen a positive change in the family in all areas,” Castillo said. “We have seen how the family’s faith has grown. And just like how the center says, ‘Hope shines here,’ I do believe that applies to this family, because thankfully, we have been able to show them there is hope beyond what they are going through.”


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