Delilah Matos' Purpose Takes Her Far From Naperville

It wasn't until Delilah Matos strayed an ocean from her comfort zone that she found where she truly belongs.

After starting a modest salon and beauty business out of a guest bedroom in her former Downers Grove home, she decided to leave a difficult marriage, taking her son Alex, now 12, along with her. She then went to Africa and everything changed.

"I left it all behind. Towels, forks, everything … " Matos, 32, said. "It was time to start my new life."

A 2009 mission trip to Zimbabwe, and Nairobi, Kenya, led her to not only evolve her beauty business, BTRU, but to add a nonprofit organization, .

BTRU—at 22 E. Chicago Ave., in downtown —promotes healthy aging and active living that helps people to, "be true to themselves." It boasts a line of simple, botanically based skin, body and cosmetics products.

BUNITY strives to create unity among people. The nonprofit will lead its first mission trip this August during which participants will stay in a Kenyan women's shelter.

Matos said the trip will focus on providing sustainable means of medical, spiritual, health and wellness to people in the East African nation. During her first mission, her group worked with orphans, brought nonperishable food items—even live goats—and taught people skills they could apply in everyday life.

The upcoming adventure will be similar, she said. The resident will lead a workshop on how to make soap as well as how to find a trade and make a living. Both will be geared toward women.

"There's something about that land," Matos said, of Africa. "…It's not like I have years of experience with this. This is a leap of faith. Anyone can do it and I'm going to keep doing it. Some people say 'Let's go to the next town,' but I say, 'Let's go to the next country.'"

Life changed for Matos when she was baptized in Kenya. She said the experience deepened her faith and made her purpose crystal clear.

"Since I had that connection, things have not been the same," she said, with a smile. "You still have your challenges but you're much more empowered and you carry yourself much more confidently and securely to get through those things."

Matos speaks once a month at the Naperville Women's Club. Subjects of the free seminars vary. They are open to all and offer a "time to share and connect," she said.

One day she hopes to expand BUNITY's mission to include supporting other nonprofits, as the women's club does. She also wants to participate in more local outreach efforts.

For now she's focused on raising money for her group's August trip to Africa.

To do so, she's booked a June 5 show at 's Wentz Concert Hall featuring musical artist Beckah Shae. Tickets are free but donations go directly to the mission, she said.

"All of us have a gift, something to give," Matos said. "It doesn't matter if you have a college education or anything like that. We all have something to contribute. It can be in your back yard, it can be down the block … Or it can be in Kenya."

She has learned that it's not so much about what you can do for yourself, but "doing for others because that is actually doing for yourself."

"Just be," she said. "If people would stop and just learn to be … Be true to yourself, the person next to you and you'll find that you don't need a lot of that extra stuff. ... If I can do this, seriously anyone can."

For more information about Beckah Shae's June 5 show in Wentz Concert Hall, 171 Chicago Ave., Naperville, or to make a donation, call 630-637-SHOW or visit the North Central College website.