For Paco Moreno, author of these moving pages, his fate was determined: holding a degree in law, he set up his own office and very young enjoyed a privileged economic situation.
But by chance, or perhaps because he needed to give something in return for his good fortune, he travelled to Ethiopia as a volunteer and after that experience he was no longer the same. There he found that the nomadic tribes of the region did not have enough water and that girls could not go to school because every day they had to go a long way across the scorching desert sand to fill their jerry cans. He saw how those people, babies, children, pregnant mothers and elderly died from malnutrition or diseases that were believed to have been totally eradicated.
Paco Moreno was then determined to come back with more and more frequency, and eventually founded the NGO Amigos de Silva in Afar, the hottest region in the world. In return, he has found his place in the world.
This is a testimony of what it means to pay back, and an account of the reasons that make us happy.
This book was awarded in the first edition of the Feel Good Prize, a literary contest organized by Obra Social «la Caixa» and Plataforma Editorial in order to boost optimism.among authors and readers.
