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.
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.
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.
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 🙌🏽
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