By Barbara Rosasco | Secretary & Treasurer
Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, sometimes it is hard to tell.....
Our project report this month features one of the families in our Family Support Program. As we had discussed before, in recent years, whenever possible, we have worked hard to help our familes in this program move toward self sufficiency . Having said that, there remains a core of fragile households, each facing unique challenges which would make it difficult or even impossible for us to end our support . The task of managing the support of these families can be extremely difficult as our report will soon reveal.
One such case is a family that includes a boy, now age 13 and in grade 6. This boy and his mother have been in our program for more than 10 years. The mother has AIDS. Last year the mother met a man, who against our stated policy, moved into the house. It was not a good situation, as the man was sometimes violent and verbally abused the boy. After a few months, the man persuaded the mother to abandon her son and the mother ran off with the man. Before she had met that man, this woman was extremely hard working and took very good care of her son. Despite her illness, she sometimes worked for the city, cleaning sewer drains for $ 5 per day. In addition to that, she collected recyclables on the street earning up to $ 3 per day. Our program staff person, a woman, herself HIV+ took the boy into her own tiny home to live with her family and we provided financial support.
The boy, not surprisingly ,suffered severe trauma and was emotionally scarred by his mother's abandonment. The very good news is that his mother has recently returned after several months away. It is a difficult situation and one which obviously requires careful oversight, placing the well being of the boy first. Having survived several difficult months without his mother, he is overjoyed that she is back. They are now living, just the two of them, in a simple single room. It could be all too easy to judge harshly ,and be completely unforgiving of such a hurtful action, but none of us can even begin know the grinding poverty and extreme hardship that someone in her position has endured year after year, with no hope of respite in sight.Although we continue to support the boy , we are at present, evaluating whether we feel that we can resume support for the mother and we are monitoring the family situation carefully.
Without the support and monitoring of our program, surely this boy would have been "lost". Our deepest hope is that things can return to a more normal state and help this young man move forward in his life.
Your continued support of our program means that we can assist fragile families like these and help them through trying times.
Tuesday, November 27, is Giving Tuesday and marks the start of the GlobalGiving year end giving campaign with $150,000 in matching funds and 30+ bonus prizes (ranging from $3,000 to $100) over a 24-hour period on #GivingTuesday. Matching funds will be determined proportionally at the end of the campaign.
Our hope is that these incentives will encourage you to generously celebrate and support the change you’re making in the world when you support programs like ours.
We are deeply grateful for your support.
Barbara & Mark Rosasco
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By Barbara Rosasco | Secretary & Treasurer
By Barbara S. Rosasco | Secretary & Treasurer
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