It Takes A Village

You’ve probably heard the famous phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child.” If you're a parent, chances are you've felt how raising kids can be simultaneously beautiful and challenging.

If you are a parent, you can probably picture the people in your "village" as your kids grew up. They could have been parents, in-laws, siblings, friends, neighbors, or once strangers who turned into family because of the way they showed up in your story.

Take a second to imagine how much more difficult it would have been not to have had those people. Imagine how heavy challenges would have felt without that support if you had to go through them alone.

Silary had an incredible village around her.

She was just sixteen years old when she had her first son. But, with the full support of her partner and her mom, raising a family seemed like a challenge, but one that they could handle together. 

Silary and her partner had two more sons over the next three years. She shared with us that she always felt her family's support and that she could rely on them to lessen the weight of raising three boys under the age of four. 

However, in 2021, in the wake of the economic impacts of the pandemic, Silary’s mom moved to Mexico for a better job opportunity. Shortly after, the boy’s father tragically passed away in a traffic accident. Silary, just nineteen at the time, seemingly lost her entire village overnight. She was left to care for her three young sons with no family nearby to help. 

She did what she could to care for them and continue providing for them, but finding work and childcare that she could afford was nearly impossible. For a few months, she was able to hold it all together. But one day, while a friend was watching her sons, the police responded to a neighbor complaining the kids weren’t being taken care of. When the police showed up, they took her three sons to an orphanage. 

Silary spent nearly the next two years trying to prove to lawyers from Child Protective Services that she was in a stable enough place to get her sons back home, but each time, they found reasons not to approve the reunification. 

It was then that officials from Child Protective Services introduced us to Silary.

They told us that they could see she loved and cared for her sons, but she didn’t have the living conditions or the economic stability to bring them back home. Without support, they weren’t sure when she would be able to get them back.

When we met her, her mom had just returned from working in Mexico. They were renting a room because the home they lived in with her sons had significant damages that made it unlivable. They shared their hopes to one day move back into their home and eventually start a small restaurant to provide a more steady income.

We developed a plan with Silary and her mom for how we could support them. Over the last five months, it involved renovating their home, emotional empowerment, and investing to help start up their small business. This support would allow Silary to open her business in her own home, with an addition of a functional kitchen to make it possible for her to work while taking care of her kids throughout the day.

Just a few weeks ago, they moved into their home...

and after meeting all of the Child Protective Services’ requirements, her sons were approved to be reunited with Silary! They were greeted with the sweetest welcome home party. Their renovated home was decorated with balloons while friends and neighbors showed up to welcome the boys back home. 

Silary’s sons were welcomed to a home that looked drastically different from when the police took them and, way more importantly, by a village that didn't exist two and a half years ago. The support of the community around their family made all the difference in allowing these kids to grow up in a loving family rather than an orphanage. 

Silary, just like every parent, needed the support of a village to raise her three beautiful sons.

We believe that when you support the families who are in the process of being reunified, you become an extension of their village. You help to rally around them, giving them the practical support needed to empower them to love and protect their kids.

*This family has given permission to share these parts of their story and their pictures.