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Save Home of Special Needs Children

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My name is Ishun Jamal Richards, I am a 43 year old Marine Veteran of Operation Desert Storm/ Desert Shield, married for over 19 years to my wife Ronyette, and blessed with 5 children. My sons; Ishmael (17), Immanuel (15), Israel (13), Isaac (7) and only daughter Tzipporah (4).



Most of my children have special needs. Ishmael and Tzipporah both have Sickle Cell disease. Diagnosed at birth, Sickle Cell Disease is a blood disorder that weakens their immune system and causes painful blood clots in the joints and organs. Israel was diagnosed at the age of 10 as being on the Autism spectrum, and has many of the challenges associated with the disorder. Immanuel has both Sickle Cell disease AND Autism, which was diagnosed at age 4. He is non-verbal and will be dependent upon others for his care for the rest of his life. Only Isaac has been spared any developmental challenges thus far. Ronyette has chosen to be an at home mom to assist with the needs our children have, and until recently, I was providing for our home by assisting the war effort overseas by operating Unmaned Ariel Vehicles (Aerostats) for the military as a civilian contractor.

With my job keeping me out of the country for 6 months at a time, and 3 of the five of our children becoming teenagers, the duties of parenting became incresingly difficult for Ronyette to handle alone. Teenagers are a handful in and of themselves, add the challenges of Autism and Sickle Cell Disease and they can be  overwhelming for a woman who is, for all intents and purposes, a single parent. With the conflict in Afghanistan ending, we made the decision for me to end contracting work which would allow me to assist with the enormous parenting duties. We fully expected for me to be able to find employment rather quickly after I came home from deployment in March of 2014, but the economy was not as willing to cooperate. My presence at home made our home much more emotionally stable, but financially the situation became increasingly more and more desperate. I was able to gain employment after nearly a year of being unemployed, for which I am grateful, however the income was not enough to fulfill all of the financial needs of the home.  In July I was offered a job that will,  in time, catch up all of the delinquencies that have accumulated over the last year and a half of unemployment and underemployment. Time however is somewhat short, because our home is now in active foreclosure.

Saving our home is the most pressing of all the financial needs we have at the moment.  My Autistic Children need a highly structured environment in order to function and the Sickle Cell Disease children also need a more controlled environment due to their compromised immune system. Becoming homeless would be devastating to anyone, but the effect is amplified when dealing with children from these groups. Most importantly, my work with the Government depends on my maintenance of a security clearance. Should I lose the home to foreclosure, it is likely that I would lose my clearance also, which would undermine my ability to provide for my family overall. I have exhausted every other option to enter a program or gain some type of relief known to me.

I believe that God will provide what is needed so that these children will not lose the house that they know as their home and haven of safety from the world. God will sometimes use other people to meet the needs that his children have in this world. I hope that you will search your hearts and find it in them to help us in our hour of need.

Organiser

Ishun Jamal Richards
Organiser
Ft. Washington, MD

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