Hi. On July 14th, my 12 year old daughter was the victim of gun violence in our Cahokia Heights home. She was in an upstairs bedroom laying down when bullets from a high powered gun came through the brick walls and hit her. This left her with multiple wounds in her abdomen and a bullet that has to be surgically removed from her right leg.

The physical wounds are healing, but the emotional and mental scars are not. When she left the hospital, we stayed in my mother's 1 bedroom apartment for a few days and now we're using a spare at a family member's house. Arielle becomes visibly distressed, crying and breathing hard, at the thought of going back to our apartment. This once happy child is now sad and withdrawn. She used to sing and dance all of the time and now is fearful and worried. I cannot force her to go back to the place of her trauma.

I have been trying to get the money on my own, but since I only work part- time, I cannot afford the cost of moving. Now I am reaching out to the community for help. Please. Please help me to raise the money needed to move to a different neighborhood so that my daughter never has to enter that apartment again.

Thank you so much for your donation.

Below is a clip from the media coverage about the incident.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/shooting-child-injured-cahokia-heights-illinois/63-32990a7b-3ab3-4032-99b7-66107a18f2e1