Help this little family stay together and reach independence

This is the story of a Mexican mom and daughter who work hard but still need our help to continue their independent lives. Hi, I’m Jane White, a retired women’s health nurse who has been going to Mexico since retirement in the winter to live on a tiny sailboat with my sailor husband, Nigel. We met a Mexican family ten years ago and became friends—the dad worked at the marina where our boat was, and Gabriella was the mom to baby Helena, who was one year old then. We saw each other often, and as Helena grew up, she showed amazing talent as an artist, so we always brought her art supplies—this was before she started school!

Then the dad lost his job, so they moved 50 miles away—on a bus with all their belongings packed in a couple of black plastic bags. We visited often through the years and always brought Helena art supplies and books. The dad had a job, so they survived fine.

When Helena was 7 y/o, her dad had a mental health crisis which was serious and lasted more than a year, during which self-harm and family violence were issues. By the time the dad recovered somewhat, the marriage was over, and Helena had ambivalent feelings about her dad and did not want to be with him, especially not alone.

So began the beginning of the Gabriella and Helena family. The dad moved around and never sent them money. Gabriella got a job, but women’s wages in Mexico are very low compared to men’s, and so Nigel and I started to help fill in what was needed.

Helena is 12 now. She has been a dedicated student at the top of her class her entire school life. She is still an artist but is more interested in academics and doing well at school. We have been sending $200 per month to supplement Gabriella’s paycheck, and that is just fine with us. Schools are public, BUT textbooks and test forms and workbooks are paid for by the family and are quite costly. And they go to the “public” hospital, BUT medications and medical tests are not covered and are not discounted. So these two things have been stretching our budget a bit thin, but we can’t abandon them!

I learned something surprising from the local orphanage that our marina hosts every year for Christmas—most of the kids in the orphanage have a parent! And when the parent can’t afford what their child needs, their children go to the orphanage! There is no aid to needy families with children like in the US.

Helena is very close to her mother, and so a separation is something we truly want to avoid.

So we are content to supplement Gabriella’s paycheck with $200 monthly and are looking for help with another $200 monthly for books and school needs, and also for occasional medicine.

We want to help Helena all the way through her graduation from high school, which will help her with future training and employment, and then perhaps she and her mom will be able to support themselves, which is what they want.

One last note on Gabriella. She is a strong-willed and smart, though uneducated, woman who works hard and cares about her daughter and her daughter’s education deeply. Two years ago, she heard about a new program that AMLO created to help the working poor own decent homes, homes with good infrastructure and insurance. As she had been working full-time for over a year and earned a low income, she qualified, and with only some help from us, she was able to make it all work, and now they are making $150 monthly payments on their own home! I want to help them keep that home!

Both Gabriella and Helena are hardworking, kind, and creative and deserve our help! Helping one little family feels so good. Please help them with us.