Felipe's Story: Hope on the Triple Border

Across this triple border, sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking of children and adolescents are heartbreakingly common. The victims are usually the most vulnerable: children, adolescents and women who are poor, uneducated, indigenous, or riverside dwellers. Many are foreigners who crossed the river with hope but found danger instead. Most cases of sexual violence against children are committed by the very people who should protect them. Family members, relatives, friends and neighbours often exploit them or deliver them into the hands of others. 

Amid this painful reality stands missionary Maria Canilla, founder of the “Refugio de Dios” home on Santa Rosa Island. She explains the community with sorrow and great courage. 

“Santa Rosa Island in Peru, where I currently live, is characterized by having eighty percent of the population involved explicitly or quietly in drug trafficking. A sad reality as well is child prostitution, alcoholism and physical and psychological violence from parents towards their own children.” 

Her words paint a picture of a place where innocence is threatened daily and where hope seems to sink beneath the weight of poverty and fear. Yet God is at work even here. One of the clearest signs of His love can be seen in the small life of Felipe. 

Felipe is only four years old. He lives in a tiny wooden house with his mother. Before arriving at the Refugio de Dios home, his childhood was marked by hardship. 

His mother, struggling to survive, often took him from house to house across Santa Rosa Island and into Leticia in Colombia to beg for food. Sometimes they even crossed into Tabatinga in Brazil. 

Felipe walked barefoot for days in the scorching heat. The ground burned his small feet and painful blisters formed, but he had no choice except to keep walking. Along with hunger and exhaustion, he also suffered physical abuse.  

But God did not forget Felipe. 

Through the Bread of Life Program at the Refugio de Dios home, He opened a door to safety, nourishment and love. 
Today Felipe receives his meals every day.  

His body is healing. His feet no longer bleed. He has a place where he can rest, where he can laugh and where he can simply be a child again. 

Most beautifully, Felipe is learning the Word of God. He hears stories from Scripture. He learns that he is loved, chosen and precious in the sight of the Lord. The joy on his face is the clearest testimony that God restores dignity. His smile is a small light in a dark place and that light is growing. 

“God has given him back the dignity he deserves,” Maria says. “He is a child loved by God.” 

What once were fear and weariness have now been replaced by a spark of hope. Felipe’s transformation is gentle but powerful. It is reflected in his eyes and in the way he now walks with confidence. The Bread of Life Program has become more than a feeding effort. It has become a place where children wounded by the world encounter the love and healing of Christ.