*Today I helped an Ethiopian woman challenge her employer--she's pregnant, has 2 other children, and is separated from her husband (and finances are tight). Her work manager told her she had to stop working completely and go on disability/pregnancy leave after the Midwife wrote a letter asking them to give her "light duty" on her cleaning job (she's toward the end of her pregnancy, and has been a perfect, hard, reliable worker). More than likely, they are trying to not pay her that whopping hourly wage of $8.50 per hr. by taking advantage of the fact that she doesn't speak very good English and is very passive. This makes me very angry--they DO have light duty work available! This is where unions do come in handy, btw!

*Yesterday I met with a couple from Iraq. They'd both been imprisoned and tortured for years during the 90s in an Iraqi prison, and suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The pregnant mother was referred to counseling; however, the doctor didn't show for the first 2 appointments and then the interpreter no-showed on the 3rd appointment. She's now given up hope of people following through with her, and won't go to anymore appointments. I have some trust-building to do! The four and a half year old daughter wants to go to school so badly that she cries each morning when her older brother goes to school. When I was at their home doing the assessment, she thought I was a teacher and she got out a pen and paper to pretend to write like I was doing. She wanted to show me what a great student she'd be--she wanted me to take her to school. They live in low-income housing and the windows and floor of the entire house are scattered with a film of mold, which they are allergic to. I'll be advocating to have them moved.

*There are several West African women I have as clients who are "circumcized" (mutilated). Their clitorises--and in some cases, their inner/outer vaginal lips--were removed without anesthesia as young girls in their home countries. As you might imagine, sex is associated with excruciating pain and fear for these women. Delivering a baby vaginally is quite a challenge. One of these clients of mine just delivered twins. I looked at them, then at her, when I went to her home the other night and barely held back tears as I imagined how much she's been through.

~~~

Aren't people just fucking amazing?! Isn't it incredible what we experience in life? Far from finding this work I do "depressing", I find it a huge blessing. Truly, I am grateful to be reminded everyday via this work just what it means to be human and what I was meant to be doing in this life!

Your turn! Tell some amazing stories of people you know!

AnotherLover, you amaze me. You are making such a difference in the lives of these people.

You are not just anotherlover.You the THEE lover.I love to hear stories of people helping people.I do little things here and there but one day i hope to give someone a new life.Like watering a flower and watching it grow.To see another human reach new highs as a result of something you did has to be a serious rush.Keep doing what you do Anotherlover and maybe it will get contagious.

Ah, jeez, you two--this is sooo not about me! I am not Mother Teresa Anyone who really knows me, knows how down to earth and evil I can be!

I'm serious, think of someone you know who's been through a lot and tell us their story!

AnotherLover2 said:

The couple with the mold on the floor --- will they be moved? that stuff is slow killing poison. I want updates on these ppl dammit!

How can we help?

Thanks for sharing that, anotherlover...

salaciousV said:

They'll be moved--I'm calling the office to try to expedite it. The low-income housing authorities are asking for medical records for proof of health problems . The family did go to the ER once, but I don't know if they informed the hospital about the mold. The mold is easily visible to the eye, and they came in and sprayed once already. It just grows back!

I have another client who is 14 yrs. old, was sexually assaulted by a boyfriend of her mothers when she was 9. Started having sex at that age, too. Got pregnant when she was 12, miscarried in her 9th month. Got pregnant again 2 more times. Is now pregnant, in her 7th month, is a ward of the state but keeps running away. Was living in a Tent City for awhile, til they found out how old she was. The father of the baby is 21 and a meth addict (just came back from rehab). The client considers herself bisexual and a Wiccan. She also says birth control works the opposite on her--that it makes her get pregnant.



This girl is a survivor--I've got to hand it to her!

One of my clients and her husband lived in a refugee camp in Africa for 10 years before getting a visa to the U.S. I felt kinda stupid asking them about "depression" and "anxiety" But one of my favorite responses ever to a question of mine, was when I asked them whether they ever have disagreements. The wife started laughing and answered incredulously: "we lived in a refugee camp for 10 yrs--fighting is for rich people. There's nothing for us to fight about because we have nothing".

At the core of it: all we really have is each other in the end, and that's all that really matters.

Amazing. Tell us more.

Sheesh, I could tell ya zillions of stories! But sometimes it's the little things that just slay you about people: a look of vulnerability and trust, an expression of abject pain, the motherfucking incredible smile of a baby...being the first person a client's ever confided a particular thing to...watching a woman leave an abusive situation and rebuild her life successfully, go to school and get a degree...

Ah, I just sound corny, now!

bumpin' fo' mo'.

Yesterday I saw a client of mine for the first time since she'd had to terminate her pregnancy. She found out at 5 months that her fetus hadn't developed (and never would) kidneys, a bladder or sufficient lungs. She's married, but hates her husband and has a boyfriend (she's not positive whose baby it is, either ). She says she tries to leave her husband, but always goes back because he tells their little girl that Mommy hates him and is being mean to him and he cries--and so her little girl refuses to leave with her mother, and the mother can't live without the little girl...also, the husband threatens to commit suicide if she leaves.

This one is a really screwed up story, actually... This woman's misery is all in her own hands...

True realization of reality. No wonder you goof on these boards. Damn. How do you stay sane?

miss AL2 what kinda work do you do?

Christopher said:

I'm a social worker in a midwifery clinic--I work with pregnant women and babies, usually from poorer families.

4LOVE said:

wiping away a tear

Wow that is sweet, 4LOVE

Here's my story:

I have been friends with a girl for six years now, through high school and she attends college with me now. She is half Vietnamese and has a ton of siblings, and doesn't know her parents - all the kids were adopted at fairly young ages by a couple in Oregon. The couple was very religious, the father was a pastor, and used to beat religion into the kids. Literally. One day my friend gathered up all of her strength and ran away to the neighbors. When social services found out about the abusive home, they took her to live with the couple's grown and married daughter in California. (The couple has disowned my friend since and doesn't allow any contact between her and her sibs.)

The daughter and her husband treated my friend like absolute shit. She was literally the nanny to their two kids. She had to cook and clean and get good grades and do all that shit, just like Cinderella. Not to mention all of the verbal abuse that went on. When she turned 18, they cut her off - financially and in every other sense - most likely because she left for college at that point and wasn't able to be their slave anymore. She has been on her own since then, working and being a student and supporting herself. It's pretty nuts. Sometimes I can't believe her strength.

Natsume said:

Thanks, Nat! What a story! Ya know, I hate it when people adopt children out of a sense of "duty" rather than love . In fact, my supervisor was just telling me about a woman she knew who told her that she and the other adopted kids in her family had to sit at a separate table at dinner time. This just infuriates me!

4LOVE said:

Oh, and btw: in my opinion, you doing "little things here and there" is just as amazing as anything supposedly "big" that anyone else is doing. It's all about what's in your heart and the interaction between the two individuals!

Truly amazing, and heart warming stories...

Humanity never ceases to amaze me..We are given the gift of healing..

sag10 said:

My opinion is that people heal themselves, while others (family, friends, kindness of strangers) try to show them that healing is desired and possible.

I know I'm not the only person with stories to tell! C'mon Orgers!

AnotherLover2 said:

You might be...

AzureStar said:

I think you have some stories in ya!

AnotherLover2 said:

lol... perhaps...

(I am out so I can't respond... the second one.)

AzureStar said:

I can't remember which was 1st and which was 2nd Was it the B?

AnotherLover2 said:

Yes, it was. lol

bump

Thanks for your stories anotherlover.
Today, I signed up for sociolgy as my second choice for college now.I think I have a story to tell, of my mother. but not now.