Juarez Residents Thankful For Ruiz Family

by ABC-7 Reporter Darren Hunt

JUAREZ, Mexico — This Sunday night at 7 p.m. on ABC-7, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” — the El Paso episode — will air nationwide.

Here in the Sun City, we all know how Maria Ruiz and her family feel about the people of Juarez, who they help feed and clothe with their missionary efforts. But how do the people of Juarez feel about them?

“We need help,” says Savena Dominguez, who lives in Juarez.

She says if it weren’t for Ruiz family’s weekend visits to the poverty stricken outskirts of far east Juarez, she doesn’t know what she and others would do.

“We have huge needs in this colonia … this entire colonia has needs,” Dominguez said. “Imagine if they didn’t come over to help how things would end up…We are poor.”

So poor, when Maria Ruiz arrives, she’s greeted with cheers.

“We’re very thankful for the Ruizes,” says Juarez resident Juan Alvarado, who has been out of work for several months. “This has been a great help to us. I don’t know what else to say about these great people. We had nothing. Now, we have something.”

All because of Ruiz, who they say, was sent from above.

“I’m not an angel,” Ruiz says. “All I am is an instrument, an instrument that God is using to be able to provide for these children. But I’m not an angel, I’m not a hero, I’m not a supernatural woman. I’m just an ordinary woman trying to help somebody in need, that’s all!”