After loss, poverty, and years of interrupted schooling, Silbino found stability at NPH Mexico and pursued his dream of becoming a dentist.
Silbino Aguilar Moreno grew up in Llano de la Rana, a Mixtec Indigenous community in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico.
For much of his childhood, education was something Silbino had to fight to keep. Loss, poverty, and the need to work repeatedly pulled him away from the classroom. Yet even when the path ahead seemed closed, he held on to the hope that education could lead to a different future.
In his own words, Silbino shares the long road from interrupted schooling to dentistry—and the support that helped him keep going.
Silbino’s early childhood was marked by loss and constant movement in search of stability. When he was four years old, his mother died, leaving his father to care for the family while struggling to make ends meet. With limited options, his father traveled for work, and the children were left in the care of their oldest sister, who was only 10 years old at the time. Hoping for better opportunities, the family eventually moved to San Quintín, Baja California.
There, his father found work in the agricultural fields, but the labor was grueling. One night, he returned home exhausted and gravely ill, and by the next morning, he had passed away. With the help of neighbors and friends who contributed what little they could, his body was returned to Llano de la Rana, where he was laid to rest in his hometown.
After this second devastating loss, Silbino and his siblings returned to Guerrero, where the older children did their best to keep the family together. There were days when they had nothing to eat, and survival depended on following seasonal agricultural work wherever it could be found. As a result, Silbino’s education was repeatedly interrupted.
In the years that followed, the family moved between Chihuahua and Sinaloa, where Silbino worked in chili and vegetable fields in the mornings and tried to attend school in the afternoons. The work was physically demanding, and the family’s financial situation remained fragile. By the time he was 16, the pressure to contribute to the household had become too great, and he left school to work full time.
While still working in the fields and trying to continue his education, Silbino heard about Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos through a friend. The idea of a place where children could live, study, and grow as part of a family stayed with him. He decided to apply, not knowing what would come next.
In 2015, at 17 years old, he received the call that would change the direction of his life: NPH Mexico had accepted him into its family.
His first reaction was fear. He had never known a life like the one waiting for him. Still, he recognized that this was a chance he could not pass up. That same night, he left Guerrero and traveled to Morelos.
When Silbino arrived, he was struck by the sight of so many children living together like a family. For the first time, he experienced a sense of stability and belonging that allowed him to imagine a different future. He restarted secondary school but that brought another challenge. Silbino had grown up speaking Mixtec and knew very little Spanish when he arrived. As he adjusted to his new home, he also worked to learn Spanish so he could follow his lessons and keep pace with his classmates.
With the opportunity to focus fully on his education, Silbino began to realize his own potential and discover what he was truly capable of.
After completing secondary school, Silbino moved to the NPH home for high school students in Cuernavaca, where he studied accounting. For him, high school was more than the next academic step—it was the foundation of the future he hoped to build and a way to honor both his late parents and the donors who had supported his journey.
As he settled into this new environment, Silbino’s confidence began to grow. He earned first place in a public speaking competition, joined a dance group that later performed in the United States, and completed a year of service caring for younger children at the NPH home. Through these experiences, he lived out the values of gratitude, responsibility, and giving back that had become central to his life.
In 2020, Silbino began studying Business Administration at a private university in Cuernavaca. However,
COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to continue in his original program, he transferred to a public university. During this transition, he made a pivotal decision to change direction entirely and pursue dentistry instead.
It was not an easy transition. Dental education required years of intensive study and clinical practice, along with access to specialized tools and materials. Yet with the continued support of NPH, sponsors, and donors, Silbino was able to persist and move forward step by step.
As he entered clinical training and began treating patients, Silbino discovered a deep passion for oral health. He learned from experienced doctors, formed lasting friendships with classmates and mentors, and took part in conferences and training opportunities both within Mexico and abroad.
That dedication to his studies led to a pivotal moment in his clinical training. While working in a dental clinic, Silbino noticed signs of a rare oral disease in a patient. His findings were later confirmed by the supervising doctor, and the case was developed into a formal presentation. Silbino and his colleagues went on to share it at the 50th Brazilian Congress of Stomatology and Oral Pathology, where it was also published in the professional journal Triple O.
In 2026, Silbino completed the academic requirements for his Bachelor of Dental Surgery at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL). He is now completing the required social service before beginning the degree certification process. Today, he works at Oral Dent and lives independently, continuing to build experience as a young professional.
Yet for Silbino, reaching this point is not the end of his journey—it is the beginning of a responsibility he feels deeply. He does not see his education as something to keep for himself, but as something to return to others. His goal is to go back to Guerrero and serve the community where his story began, offering the same kind of care and opportunity that once changed his own life.
“I am proud of how far I have come and grateful to God and to every donor who has made my journey possible.”
Silbino’s story did not change because of one gift or one moment. It changed because care, education, and encouragement remained available through every stage of his journey—from returning to secondary school to completing university and preparing for an independent future.
Heroes of Hope members make this kind of long-term support possible. Their recurring gifts help NPH plan ahead and stand beside children and young adults for as long as it takes to heal, learn, grow, and build lives of purpose.
By becoming a Hero of Hope, you can help more young people like Silbino reclaim opportunities poverty placed out of reach—and one day use those opportunities to strengthen their own communities.
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