Personal:
All through out my moms childhood she had to deal with poverty. My grandmother was only 16 when she had her and never finished high school. Once my aunts came along several years later when my mom was 9, my mom had to make sure they were fed and taken care of while my grandmother was at work or off with her boyfriend at the time. There was many times when my mom had to make what she could with what was left in the cabinets to feed my aunts. She would save every bit of money she ever was given and usually spent it on food, never on something for herself. The only time she was able to be a kid was when she was with her aunt who was would give her the world.
Since my mom was a teen mother as well, she made sure that even as she got older she saved every penny since she knew it would be difficult for herself and my dad to provide for 2 kids at 18 and 20 years of age. My siblings and I have never had to go with out food in our belly's or anything we needed. My mother is also always giving money to the homeless and helping out those less fortunate around our neighborhood. And like her aunt, she tries to spend as much time with her nieces and nephews to let them be kids and experience all the great things the world has to offer.
Africa:
It is sad to see any child around the world have to deal with stress that can impact their development. In Africa children have to go through so many harsh times to even survive til adulthood. Most child hood stressors are poverty, war, traumatic stress, absence of a parent, malnutrition is one of the largest stressors, malaria and other diseases. These are only a few of the things that impact the lives of African children, with so much more out there that are not recorded.
Many agencies are trying everyday to raise funds to send medicine and adequate food to every child in Africa. As for some of the other stressors, only the countries government can protect the children from the effects, but little to none is being done.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36666785/Traumatic-Stress-in-South-Africa
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your very personal and heartfelt blog. It is very inspiring to see that your mom took an extremely difficult situation that she had to deal with as a child and turned it into a positive way of helping others. Sometimes the difficult things we have to deal with in our childhood creates a strength within us to do good things in our adult lives. It sounds like your mom is a tremendous blessing to those around her(those she knows and even those she doesn't). Thank you for sharing your story.
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThank You for sharing your story. By the way your mom gave even when she did not have much to give, makes me think that her focus was taken off of herself and in turn reaching out to others. I am sure she knew that as she gave, then when it came time for a need to be met in her life , that seed that was sown would return to her... just when she needed it.
It is very overwhelming to see others get out there and assist with the needs of others. After work I usually drop off clothing to the homeless shelters. When my fathr passed, I started to keep most of his clothing for a keepsake. But I thought that he would rather me donate it to someone who can really use them.
ReplyDeleteHello Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI am deeply saddened that the governments take little or no action to protect their countries future-their children. It makes no sense to me. Just like the country I researched-China, the same occurs there.