Christina Chery |
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Christina’s life has been one of instability. She has no clear recollections of her father who abandoned the family when she was young. Not long after he left, her mother took ill and passed away as well leaving Christina and her baby sister in the care of an aunt. A vendor in the market, her aunt left the house all day and little Christina was expected to cook and care for her younger sister and cousin. At last, when Christina was 6, her aunt had saved enough money to pay the enrollment fees and she sent Christina to school. Excited, she put on her new school uniform and began to learn her alphabet. Too soon, money became tight and her aunt was unable to keep up the school payments and Christina was removed from the school. “The director knew where we lived,” Christina told us. “She took me home and she wouldn’t let me come to school because we didn’t have the money.” Over the course of four years, Christina attended five different schools and between each school were months when she was not able to attend at all. At ten years old, Christina is still in the second grade.
Now that Christina has moved into the H.E.R.O. Transition Home for Orphans her life has finally stabilized. She knows that she will eat three meals a day, she can sleep comfortably at night, and she will awaken each morning able to attend school. Christina can finally begin to enjoy her childhood. A smile lights up her face as she jumps rope with the other girls and she is starting to hold her own against the boys in three-on-three soccer. Her favorite subject is math, and she even likes to practice her addition and subtraction facts outside of study time. With Christina’s enthusiasm and perseverance and the education program H.E.R.O. has in place, we plan to make up for those years of education that were lost and enable Christina to achieve at a level with her peers.
