Faustina Mercedes Mauricio had a newborn baby when she boarded that vessel.
She was traveling illegally alongside 15 other people headed for Puerto Rico, seeking a better life. But the sea shows no mercy: they were left adrift in the middle of the Caribbean for 12 days, without water or food, watching desperation consume the weakest members of the group. Faustina, who was still breastfeeding her daughter, made a decision none of her companions expected: to offer her own body as nourishment. For 5 days, she gave her breast milk to the castaways who no longer had any strength, one by one, until the Dominican Navy found them off the coast of Nisibón. 🇩🇴
Santa Demorizi, one of the survivors, still remembers that gesture as what gave them their lives back. Faustina did not perform a one-second feat: she sustained an entire group of strangers through nearly two weeks at sea and hunger, with the only thing she had to give.