One Volunteer's Viewpoint

If you're reading this, you should consider yourself lucky. Someone in your childhood took the care and love needed to help you learn to read and write well. You were sent to school, supported with food and shelter and most of all, given love. When you failed a test, or finished behind the front-runner in a race, or finished fourth in a competition and went home feeling down without a prize, someone held you or patted you on your back and said "It's alright not to win once in a while, you can do better the next time!". When you succeeded in something you set out to do, such as make an "A" in that hard math test, or wrote a nice poem or an essay that was appreciated by your school teacher, you came home and found more recognition, a heartfelt pat on the back, and possibly a reward for your success. In short, you probably had a good support system in a "family".

Imagine for a moment, where you would be today if your elders did not push you to learn your ABCs, and  help you with your "2 times 2 = 4" lesson!  Imagine what it would have done to your confidence today,  had you not graduated from high school because no one helped you in your homework, or gave you the assurance that help is there when you need it. Not just with your homework, but during Christmas to put up a nice Christmas tree (or another festival that brings joyous family members together). Life would be so barren and fruitless if no one appreciated you as a kid, and you felt neglected and alone. 

Now imagine this too. There ARE hundreds of such kids in the metro Atlanta area within miles of us, living through this condition, living without a family support system, with no one to send that birthday card to, and no one to receive it from, on their birthday! Life, it seems, is an even bigger puzzle for these kids than for the rest of us, because they have no role models at "home". Because they do not live in a "home" but in a shelter for kids. They have a new surrogate parent every few months, who has a new style of enforcing discipline. Each time their guardian rotates, they have to adjust to a new "parent". Have you had to do that ? Perhaps not.

If this story touches your heart, there IS something you can do about it – GET INVOLVED! Get involved in helping these children to learn to dream a better life, one where they would walk on that dais on graduation day, hold their heads high and be proud of their achievement of having graduated from school. You can not only give them the dream, but help them realize their dream too. You can help them feel for once, that they can some day buy that car they see on the road, or own a home like the one they walk by! It takes a couple of hours of your time each week (maybe one less show on TV?!!) to help a kid stand on his/her own feet for the rest of his/her life. One such opportunity to help kids is Project One-on-One, administered by Children's Restoration Network (www.childrn.org).   Please visit their website to find out how you can get involved, and watch your email for the weekly service announcements for point of contact information.