Gloria and Irma are sweet girls stuck in a very bad situation.
In the last post (below) we mentioned the need of Marta’s mother, who has 9 living children (two died) – $120 we will get her running water and fix her roof. But in the last week, we’ve come across so many other serious needs.
Some can be solved, or partially-solved, with money. Others are more serious and money isn’t the issue, necessarily.
These two girls in the photo – Gloria and Irma – live with their widowed father, 4-year old brother, Joel, and two older brothers. Their mother died in childbirth with Joel. They do not have anyone to care for them during the day, and nobody to prepare meals. They are hungry and on their own most of the time.
After their mother died, the then-15 year old sister took care of the family, cooking, cleaning, taking care of four younger children. But it became too much for her, so she ran away. The younger then-13 yr old sister took over, but, like her sister, she couldn’t take the heavy workload and harsh treatment by the father. So she also ran away.
This family is so poor they have not been able to have a steady supply of food. Yet the father and their older brothers (11 and 18) work very hard in the fields for a few dollars a day, each.
On Monday, when I took this photo at the clinic, they told me that there was no food in the house and noone to make them any lunch. So I prepared four tortillas with beans and cheese for them. They are very sweet and such nice girls.
I shudder to think of their future the way things are. I will start to gently approach the father about placing the girls in a girls-only children’s home we know.
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