And it is our hope that this class will be a source of hope for these women.  A chance for them to drink a cup of tea and learn a new skill- make their baby a blanket – and engage in conversation.  To feel loved and supported and less alone.

“If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

To these women who struggle daily, hourly, moment by moment in their situations, the hope they received through the training felt like a new beginning, a new season….it was their personal blossoming spring tree, signifying new beginnings.

Some days the picture is bleak. The questions overwhelm.  How will this woman survive? What kind of life will this little boy have? What will their futures look like?

“I sing songs about my trials; I sing so that those around me with fewer troubles will hear me singing about mine and they will feel thankful for their life.  If I can still smile and laugh and sing, with what I am going through, then they will know that they can too.”

“What is hardest each day is seeing the desperation and not having the material resources to help with all these needs. And yet, what we have we give. We have knowledge. We give these women education about their bodies, about the child growing inside of them, and about how and where they can access the medical help they need. And we give them care – spiritual and emotional and social care. We pray with them and share with them God’s love. And the women say – when we come to the center, we feel hope.”

Today I visited the Koshe dump, stood on the edge of the trash and could not fathom that only two weeks ago I had walked up and down and through the village of makeshift shanty homes that now have completely disappeared, buried in an ocean of garbage.  I watched excavators digging for bodies and heard stories from those who survived- how anyone survived I don’t know.

This mother. I will never forget her. Sitting on a piece of cardboard that covered the dirt floor of the room she shared with 9 other men. She sat there feeding her newborn, only three days old, tears in her eyes.