An Aesthetician Tries to Keep Life Beautiful

The red leather on the armchairs is faded and worn and the magazines are a few years old. The light, yellowish and florescent reflects off framed diplomas that hang on the wall above an empty water jug. Outside, in the dark hallway of the shopping mall, a dilapidated sign reads "Manicurist" in black letters.

Graciela, wrapped in a white doctor's robe, stands alone in the crammed six meter-by-six meter room.

"I used to have fifteen customers a day," says Graciela, a short woman with raven-black hair. "The unemployment shows: some days I have one or two, some days none."

In 1999, Graciela mortgaged the house she inherited from her parents - her home of forty years - to buy the beauty shop in a middle class neighborhood in Buenos Aires. She still owes $9,000, a small fortune after the 300 percent devaluation of the peso.

"I've had a happy life, but I can't believe what I'm going through now," says Graciela. Her late husband Jacobo, also an aesthetician and a professor, died in 1989. They used to have a happy life and share their common profession.

After struggling to make enough for a meager living, a loyal customer told Graciela about the JDC-sponsored Social Assistance Centers. Graciela now receives food assistance and her diabetes medicines from JDC programs.

She is thankful, but cannot stop worrying about her debt, the possible loss of her home and her expenses. "I count dimes and nickels," she says, "I can't stop."

"Still, I know I could be much worse off. If it weren't for the help I get from my community, I would go hungry and would be very sick."