Girl talk of a different variety

Young Chang

It’s girls like Luzelena Pinzon who inspire Angela Mason to keep

fighting world problems that seem too big for one person or one group.

Pinzon is a five-year regular at the Shalimar Learning Center in Costa

Mesa, where local kids between first and 12th grades can get academic

help. She was tutored first in math, and now receives help in whatever

subject she needs to work on.

Her parents, immigrants from Mexico who were schooled only through the

6th grade, are proud of their daughter. This year’s Newport Harbor High

Homecoming Queen, Pinzon was recently accepted to San Diego State

University. She wants to pursue a career involving kids and counseling.

Her story of success has spread throughout Shalimar and touched the

leaders of Women of Vision, a support group for World Vision, an

organization that helps children. Members of the women’s group come from

Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

Pinzon, 18, will speak at a luncheon held by Women of Vision Saturday

in Irvine. She will be joined by Mason, executive director for World

Vision, who will talk about sufferings caused by child prostitution, war

and depravity in third world countries.

“We’re looking at what we call the ‘Girl Child,’ ” said Bobbi

Dauderman, a Women of Vision member and chair of the luncheon. “It’s

talking about the lack of opportunities for young girls, particularly

growing up in underdeveloped countries, that do not experience flowering

into full womanhood.”

But Pinzon is a success story, Dauderman said. The Costa Mesa girl

said she is grateful for her parents -- how they’ve always supported her

to go beyond the distance they were able to go.

“They couldn’t finish school because they had to work and take care of

their family,” she said. “They always told us to do what they couldn’t

do, and they’ve always offered us what they couldn’t do.”

Mason travels around the world offering, in effect, the same thing:

opportunity.

She’s loaned $75 to a woman in Uganda whose husband died of AIDS so

she could start a business with the money -- the woman paid Mason back,

improved her own home, bought land, grew food there and made more money.

Mason has walked through areas planted with landmines (she doesn’t know

how she missed them all) to help people. She’s held young girls dying of

AIDS who contracted the virus after being tricked into child

prostitution.

She said she sees the most horrendous things but also learns stories

of hope and triumph.

“I love that word -- triumph,” she said. “It means somebody beat the

odds. I see courageous women and girls in some of these girl stories I

do. And I want to get back and talk about them.”

When Mason is overseas, in places where hygiene and sanitation are

lagging, she’s always grateful for a good shower because it’s there that

she can cry without anyone hearing.

After a “good weep,” she has herself a “good wash” and then a “good

pray.”

“I’m the world’s biggest coward. I am very very ordinary,” Mason

insists. “I’m petrified of airplanes and I force myself to fly all over

the world. I’m an ordinary woman who’s found herself in some

extraordinary situations.”

Pinzon, who is also modest in talking about herself, says she is

excited about speaking at the upcoming luncheon. Communication is

important to her -- part of the reason she would like to work in

counseling or therapy.

“And it’s good to express [yourself] and let people know what you

think and how you feel and where you want to be,” she said.

FYI

WHAT: “The Tragedy and Beauty of Being a Girl” -- a luncheon, silent

auction and art exhibition

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Saturday

WHERE: The Atrium at Bistango Restaurant, 19100 Von Karman Ave.,

Irvine

COST: $100. Fund-raiser for Women of Vision.

CALL: (949) 644-5671