I need your help

To everyone reading this, every contact you know, and anyone that can find an answer,

As you probably know or are learning now, I came to South America almost two years ago to volunteer in a home for adolescent girls that have been abused or neglected. I came for four months, I stayed for 20....now I will end up outlasting the children that I have grown so incredibly attached to. Due to finances (old story), demands (older story), lack of appreciation for diginity, human life, or prevention services in the field of social welfare (everywhere in the world), they are closing down the home that keeps 60 girls safe and in better living conditions than anywhere else, and has serviced thousands of children in the over 40 years that it has been open. currently, there are 29 girls living in the hogar as they tried in the last 6 months to cut numbers in order to remain afloat, found it was still impossible, now they have two weeks to place 29 kids in other homes for adolescents (that are already overfull, underfinanced, understaffed, and underqualified) or send them to families that have poor conditions and can not afford another child (emotionally or financially). So here we have children from the age of 12 to 18 not knowing where they will wake up in a few weeks, with a whole new set of people to get to know, a new school, new teachers, new problems, and everything they have known, grown to love and learned to cherish in the last several years disapearing. I am not writing a soap opera, I am talking about real life. 12 of the 29 girls have absolutaley NO ONE in their lives to call family and some of them are 18 years old, they are still in high school, uneducated, can't afford their own place in a country that offers no programs to children over the age of 18, where do they go? How do they survive?

So we are fighting.  A group of concerned human beings who know these children better than any others, the five of us, Stephen Delaney, Lily Gordon, Ben Richman, Marqueta Zemkavoka, and myself, to find an answer. 

Do you have any? 

Do you know how inexpensive it is in Chile to fund a home for 15 girls, the ones that if push comes to shove really really need our help....it's very inexpensive. But where do we go? How do we find what we need, and again...in two weeks time. In a country that prides itself on being the most developed nation in South America, where people live in Mansions bigger than beverly Hills and have two maids that work in the kitchen, in a country that offers exquisite beauty amongst a backdrop of mountains, pristine landscape, amazing wine, gourmet food, and wants to be make its place in the world, someone has forgotten to take care of their own. While the rich continue to get richer, the poor are once again, left with nothing. 

I ask you for your help, in any way you can imagine.

Comments

  1. MichaelJune 10, 2011 at 6:19 PM

    Create a campaign on http://www.indiegogo.com/ so we can easily spread the word by simply sending a link to the campaign explaining what the cause is and what people can do to help. It is a good way to quickly raise awareness and money from a large group of people because it makes it easy for people to share it. I am happy to help and donate.

    ReplyDelete

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