GO-FUND-ME Campaign

With your GENEROSITY a $1,000 to buy Christmas JOY, HOPE and CHEER for a family of 6 In Pine Ridge, South Dakota will be raised!

WHY:

In 2012 I started sponsoring two kids in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, through an organization that assist and supports many  people in that area of the world.

 
" One Spirit South Dakota" you can find them here:

 http://www.nativeprogress.org

I have been following these two kids steps closely through these past five years. 

Nalaw just turned 10, she is a great student, she wants to be a kitty for Halloween, and she wanted me to know that she started running track at school this year.
Phillip (her brother) is 9 years old and lives with his dad out of the reservation. It turns out that he did not need any more sponsoring, as per his father's request. Nevertheless we have been keeping in touch.

 Nalaw moved in with her auntie and 3 cousins, 3 years ago after she had been "home-hopping" since the passing of her mother when she was 6 years old.
(By the time she moved into her current home, she had been living at her step-dad's trailer with her brother, then taken to a foster home, (because kids were being neglected by step dad) meanwhile, her brother left to go live with his dad, and she was placed with her grandparents, until finally,  she is, currently, living with her auntie.)

Here is when I realized that I could no longer send gifts to her only, but I had to "adopt" the other kids too. Not as an obligation, but because I felt that as a kid, I would have liked to be INCLUDED!

This past June (2017) I drove with my daughter (12) and Goddaughter (11) to finally meet them all.
It was an unforgettable experience filled with joy, laughter, friendship and caring that left me wanting to give MORE!  That is the reason I created this campaign.

Just to give you an idea, funds will be used like this:

•Buy gifts for each of the kids.
•Gifts for the mom and dad.
•Fill out the stockings with little candy and toys for each member of the family.
•Get some edible items.
•A gift card for "Sioux Nation Supermarket" in their reserve.
•Wrapping paper, bags, boxes and cards and bows.
•Shipping.

I would need the funds by November 25th.

I will get a few days to shop, pack and mail, for them to get these gifts before Christmas.

It means the world to me assisting and caring for others, I can just see the joy and happiness of these kids as they open their presents and realize that the world, after all,  is a nice place for kids to grow older.

If you would like to participate you can help me reach my goal with your donation and sharing this campaign with all your friends.

My heart has been ripped out.

I spent about a week in deep sadness. Mourning for a massive loss that wasn't even mine, (at least on this lifetime.)
Pile after pile of evidence, I started sinking into hopelessness, how is it that the human race is so wretched? I felt desolated and heartbroken looking down into a giant black hole, where no beginning or end was to be seen anytime soon. How could I help? What could I do to ease the pain? who's pain? mine? theirs? who was asking all these questions anyway? 

During my research, I found Aaron Huey Ted Talk. He had been working in Pine Ridge on a photographic project, that was published in a National Geographic magazine. In my desperation, I e-mailed him asking how could I help?
No answer ever came back. I kept looking for more. 

I found this organization: ONE SPIRIT which would eventually link me to my girl, boy, and family living in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

This organization does lots of great things for people on the reservation: Food drives, wood/gas donation for winter, supporting youth with many activities related to their culture, and they offer the opportunity to sponsor an elder, a baby, a single mom, or a whole family through a sponsorship program where basically, a relationship is created with the family for life. 

They also offer the possibility to donate goods only once, to anyone through a specific program, the OKINI list.
This was my first step in getting directly involved and a way to do something about my feelings of helplessness. I could assist someone in the world, no matter how far away their reservation was. It was my first big step. 

From a long list of people wanting sponsorship, I chose a girl(4yo) and her brother (2yo) whose mom had just died in a car crash. The kids were staying with her current boyfriend, (which was NOT the biological father of any of them). I got his contact and began communicating with him. He needed things for the babies. Diapers. Baby bottles. Formula. Clothes. 

As months passed, I lost contact with him. He wouldn't return my calls, until finally, his phone was disconnected. I had lost my kids. 

After a few phone calls and e-mails back and forth with the organization, the office informed me that the boy, had been taken away by his biological father, (to live out of the Reserve) and the girl (who has a different father), was placed in a foster home. After a few months she was placed with her grandfather. 

Both my (sponsored) kids had been neglected by this man. For how long? When was this discovered? Apparently, these situations are a common occurrence at the reservation...

  

Later on, I found out that he (the caretaker) had two older (8 and 9 yo) kids of his own living with him. He chose not to disclose this information until a few weeks before his phone was disconnected. 

After my girl (Miss N.) moved with her grandpa, I started a phone relationship with him. About a year later, her aunt called me and informed me, that Miss N. was moving in with her and her kids, she was from now on her legal guardian. 

In the end, It was all good, she had someone to live with, she went to school, she had her siblings to grow up with, a family of her own, a place to sleep and eat, somewhere to belong. This helped me turn my head from the ugliness that could have been, to the grace and opportunity that exists even when I thought there was none. 

Another chapter awaited. I kept reading, listening, observing...

Now, I had a bigger family to get to know better!❤️

Gratitude 🙌🏽