Breaking Generational Cycles
At a young age, Patti lost both of her parents and spent her entire childhood living in an orphanage…
Patti and two of her kids who we're not taken to an orpahange in at their home.
With no family to support her after she turned eighteen and was forced to leave the orphanage, she has since been trying to make it on her own without any consistent help or support system. Her and her husband have worked hard their entire lives to survive, but have never been able to make it beyond the restraints of living one day at a time.
A few years ago, two of her five kids were placed in an orphanage and weren't allowed to leave because when they were born, Patti wasn't able to register them, and therefore, they had no birth certificates. This made the process for Patti to get them back home extremely complicated.
Historically, there has been limited free support to help register kids who weren’t registered when they were born. This means that families had to hire a private lawyer to help them with the legal process, costing them hundreds or thousands of dollars. For most families in these situations, this kind of money would take them years to save for, and for all of those years, their kids would be separated from their families.
When Embraced hired a lawyer to work in the child welfare office part of her job, beyond her everyday workload of managing the legal process of kid’s’ reunification with their families, is to help families register their kids, free of charge. We don't believe a complicated legal process should be an obstacle keeping kids from growing up with their families. With a birth certificate (one of the rights of the child established by the United Nations), kids can receive an education and access to health care, and when they become adults, they'll be able to open a bank account, have a job, get a driver's license, own property, and so many other processes where a legal identification is required.
Removing the obstacle of the kid's registration was an important first step, but because of inadequate living conditions, the child welfare office still couldn't approve the reunification.
The urgency for Patti's kids to return home wasn't just because we believe each kid deserves to grow up in a family, although it is true, their case was of even more importance because while living in the orphanage where they were supposed to be placed to be protected, Patti's kids suffered abuse from a caregiver. Patti and her husband knew that they needed to find a way to considerably improve their home situation to bring their kids home to safety.
Knowing that the lawyer was working on the kid’s behalf with their legal paperwork, our team (and Patti's whole family) got to work to find a solution for Patti's family and their housing situation.
Patti and her oldest son, David painting the walls of their new home.
After supporting their family with the registration of their kids, education scholarships for their kids, therapy, and a new home completely equipped with beds and dressers for each of her kids, a furnished room for Patti and her husband, a bathroom, and a kitchen where their family can grow up together, our team was able to report the changes back to the child welfare office and…
We are grateful to share that Patti’s kids are back home, where they will be safe, loved, and taken care of.
Because of your support, this family is breaking a generational cycle of kids growing up in orphanages. For the first time, they are living in a permanent and secure home, where their kids will be loved and protected by their parents.
*This family has given permission to share these parts of their story and their pictures.