Interview with Doris Rivas
“Sand is not made up of a single grain. It is made up of several grains, which form something bigger. That’s how I see the LALA community.”
Doris Rivas is a 16-year-old student from the city of Piura, Peru, who is currently part of the LALA Storytelling team, but her connection with this community began in February of this year when she participated in Virtual Camp 5 (VLB5). She is passionate about mental health issues and is in the process of creating her own project focused on mental health together with a team she met at VLB5. She also loves to support and accompany other projects, as it is a great way to learn and improve her own skills.
She knows LALA through her school, more specifically through the influence of her teacher. For her, all the stages of the application were extremely challenging, mainly because she chose to do it in English, yet they were still very important, as they provided her with self-knowledge she had not had before. “When I received my acceptance letter, I was in a very bad moment, as I had not done well in a MUN I had participated in,” says Doris, emphasizing how important it was to have received the acceptance letter just at this difficult time.
For Doris, LALA played a key role in her growth. According to her, having the opportunity to connect with so many inspiring young people and with amazing projects was fundamental for her to start developing her own. “During quarantine, while participating in Bootcamp, I began to notice the problems that this quarantine period brought, and I started asking my friends and people from other schools what mental health was, and I realized they didn’t know what it was,” says Doris as she explains what motivated her to start developing her project on mental health. She also explains that one of the main goals of this project is to get people to discuss mental health while practicing another language.
“I used to think that after the Bootcamp ended, my relationship with LALA would also end.”
Leaving the world of social impact is definitely not in Doris’ plans. “I used to think that after the Bootcamp ended, my relationship with LALA would also end, and I see that, no, I am looking more and more to participate in activities that fit my profile,” she said as she explained her future plans and how much she plans to continue being part of this family. One of her greatest desires is to completely finish her project on mental health in order to impact people, showing the importance of discussing these issues, especially nowadays, in addition to providing support to young people in Latin America.
Dóris Rivas is one of our incredible alumni who fight daily to impact youth and show the power that young people have to change more and more of their realities. With her story, she sends us the message that commitment and teamwork is the most essential thing in our lives and that no matter how small we think we are, this smallness is contributing to something bigger. LALA is extremely grateful to have you as part of our family. All your effort and dedication are seen and appreciated by everyone in this community. Thank you for sharing with us a little bit of your story and your heart!
