Sara is a mother enrolled in HRI’s Children First Program. After a year in the program, she asked to share her story with the new participants.

She spoke with extreme honesty, sharing that before entering the program she was physically and verbally abusive towards all of her children.

She said the abuse reached the point to where even her neighbors noticed her behavior towards her children.

It wasn’t until she began participating in the Children First Parent Development Program that she recognized the need to change and why her neighbors reacted to her as they did. Sara started becoming more intentional both in her approach to her children and in how she generated income after realizing the responsibility for her children was hers and hers alone. When she stopped abusing her children, Sara saw an immediate change in their behavior and academic performance.

She also worked hard to begin earning money. For example, when HRI gave every family a Christmas food basket, Sara took what she and her kids needed and sold the rest. With the money she earned from the sale, she set up a “pop-up” store at the market where she sold several kinds of toys for Christmas. With those profits, she bought shoes which she now sells regularly. Sara also sells food and beverages during Carnival and other Haitian holidays. She realized that she could profit and feed her children by understanding the market and responding to people’s changing desires at different times of the year.

Sara is confident that without the Children First Program and the Parent Development component, these things would not have been possible. She encouraged all of the new participants to have an open mind, to get involved and to be proactive in their unique way.

THE RESULTS ARE WORTH IT! SARA’S CHILDREN ARE NOW HAPPY, CLEAN, WELL˜NOURISHED AND THRIVING IN NEW WAYS.

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