The elder sister 14yrs old, of one of our sponsored students, a 13yr old girl ,tried to commit suicide this past week. She took a bottle of 200 aspirins and her mother’s respiratory medication.
She went to bed, three hours later she started vomiting blood. Her mother rushed her to the hospital and they pumped her stomach. The next morning, the sponsored student came to the house in tears, her mother was blaming her because she had not told her mother what was happening, she was scared that her sister would die and it would be her fault. Gloria called the mother at the hospital, the daughter was in a lot of pain and not being attended to.
We took her out of the hospital, sent her to the clinic where they treated her and later sent her home.
This family is a single mother with five children. We had only a sponsor for the 13yr old girl. The 14yr old girl, who is the eldest, was feeling very desperate because the family did not have enough food. They had just been evicted from where they were living because they could not pay the rent, they had moved into another room but they also did not have the rent, we had helped them with the cost of the move and the first month’s rent, the girl was also feeling very depressed because she did not have the school materials that she needed to be able to do a project., her mother could not afford to be able to buy them for her. She had come to me the week before seeking work – unfortunately we did not have any for her. If she had told me that she wanted the money for school needs we would have helped her with whatever she needed but she did not tell me.
I did not realize that this famiy was in such a difficult situation. The 13yr old girl volunteers at Mayan Families in the morning, she was very sullen when she first started but she has really blossomed since then, she smiles and enjoys being part of what is going on. I have come to realize in the weeks that she has been coming here, that she seems to have only two outfits. I think that she also the fact that she gets to eat lunch here and have oatmeal in the morning is a big bonus for her.
Her sister is now doing much better. Since we found out what is happening with the family we have taken the other four children to sponsor. The 14yr old will be going into Jnr. High next year – she was very worried that without handing in her school projects that she would not pass her grade in October. She was also very worried about how she would be able to continue going to Jnr. High because her mother just could not afford it.
We hope that we will find sponsorship for her.
I want to thank all of you who sponsor students to go to school. It means so much to the family and to the student.
Sharon
