Maria
Fernanda Benavides (also known as “Mafer”), is currently a senior at St. Mary’s
Hall in San Antonio. She is well known
by many of the sisters since her mom is Martha Quiroga, the head of our
Development and Communications Office.
In the
summer of 2018 Mafer volunteered at the Migrant Resource Center in downtown San
Antonio reading books to the refugee children, books that would inspire them: What
do you do with a chance? What do you do
with an Idea? She then asked the
children to draw pictures of their hopes and dreams. Mafer combined the drawings into a book along
with some of her own reflections and insights.
The result is literally a work of art and is entitled: A Summer With the Butterflies: A journey of
Courage, Persistence, Hope.
Some of
Mafer’s goals:
* After witnessing the positive impact that art
had on refugee children, Mafer became inspired to create a non-profit dedicated
to providing scholarships to refugee children in the arts so a percentage of
the cost of the book will go into forming those scholarships.
* The book is also meant to push for
immigration reform and advocate for refugee families in the U.S. and around the
world. To this end Mafer aims to raise
the funds necessary to put a copy of this book in the hands of every member of
the U.S. Congress.
* Mafer wants the voices of the children to be
heard through their art. To do this,
Mafer is in very early conversations with several museums, including the
Smithsonian, to have an exhibit of the actual drawings. (The person from the Smithsonian who is in
conversation with Mafer happens to be a graduate of Incarnate Word High School
in San Antonio.)
Cost: $
23 -- Available
from: https://www.blurb.com/b/9724333-a-summer-with-the-butterflies-a-journey-of-courage
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