By Mark Kaiser | Founder, Director
We are charging into the 'back half' of a very strange year. For all that it has brought I am proud (and relieved!) to say that Crescimento Limpo continues to find a path forward to live our mission.
One of our dilemmas early into this year's pandemic was seeing a previous resident relapsing back into addiction. I will call this friend José here, to protect his privacy. José lost his job because of the pandemic, and with it lost hope and belief in himself. Other previous resident of CL sought me out concerned for José, and we faced some difficult barriers in finding ways to help. Due to the necessary public health measures, our halfway house was not permitted to receive new residents at the time, so we needed to think creatively. Our friend José desperately needed to re-focus and believe in his own worth again, and our café (Caféla) had suffered a break-in the previous night. It's funny how alligning two crisis can bring about a solution! That night José accepted my request that he serve as our night security for our café. It was the spark he needed to believe in his own worth again! He spent the nights at our garden café, and volunteered his days helping with maintenance and animal care on our small farm. He told me that the first few days would be extremely tough as his alcoholism had progressed to the point of causing hallucinations, but he faught through the days of withdrawl and reestablished his sobriety. José continued, essentially living at our garden property, until restrictions were loosened allowing us to receive him back as a resident of our halfway house once again. We are proud to have him back, and he is proving to be a very possitive influence amongst our other residents.
In June we finished the two small kitchenettes we were working on since March and made them available for family residents. We received a request from a young couple named Leonardo e Elizmar. They are Venezuelan refugees, Elizmar was seven months pregnant in a high risk pregnancy, and they were set to loose their housing in the city of São Paulo. They are now housed with us, Leonardo has a full-time job, and they are awaiting the arrival of their little one at the end of August.
Our second kitchenette went to a single mom who needed to establish an independent residency to work towards regaining custody of her daughter. She works with us in our café and is very proud to have her own home.
We are now permitted to receive residents into our halfway house from rehab clinics. But as a means of protection againt introduction of COVID-19 to our house, new residents must submit themselves to a week long quarantine within the house upon arrival. Three new residents have successfully completed this process and are now integrated members of our supportive recovery community!
I couldn't have imagined what this year would bring, but I am proud to say that our house has met the challenges with courage. We are thankful to God for the continued path towards restoration that has been made possible. We are also thankful to those of you who have contributed towards keeping our doors open and our staff paid! Your kindness provided the opportunity our friends needed to find hope and restoration.
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