There’s no place like home, home is where the heart is, home sweet home, home is not a place- it’s a feeling. These quotes about home show just how special home is to us as people. It’s a place that provides us with safety surrounded by the comfort of our family.
Home, a necessity
According to experts, we need this place called home because it provides security, identity, and privacy among other things.
“But most of all,” says Graham Rowles, a gerontology professor at the University of Kentucky, “it’s a place that provides us with a centering—a place from which we leave each morning and to which we return each evening.”
Now, can you imagine how people who don’t have a home feel? Especially if those people are young children who, more than anyone, need this kind of reassurance and safety in their lives in order to grow up and become mentally and emotionally balanced adults.
People face homelessness due to various reasons, with the most prominent being financial problems. However, there are immigrants and asylum seekers who struggle to make ends meet and find a safe place to call home, while there are also victims of natural disasters who are violently deprived of their right to a home, and who see their whole life slip away in the form of a house.
Meet Kenia
Kenia Madrigal, a Houston mom of four, and her children were recently evicted from their apartment when Kenia couldn’t pay the rent because she had been laid off and couldn’t find another job in the middle of the pandemic.
So, she and her children ended up living in the small SUV they own for more than two months in the summer.
“I take the car seats out. I put the seats down, and these two go all the way back,” the single mother told ABC13. “So, me and my oldest are there while the youngest are in the back.”
Their car becomes their home
Besides the physical and emotional exhaustion that sleeping in a car comes with, the situation also affected Kenia’s oldest children who could not attend school. As we know, due to Covid 19, children mostly attend online classes, which, living in a car does not allow for.
However, Kenia knew this couldn’t go on forever, so she kept looking for a solution, but it was all in vain. Although she got a new job, her $11.5/hour was not enough to help her get a new home. But then the magic happened.
A great friend
Kenia’s coworker, Chelsea Monroe, started a GoFundMe for her and her children.
The initial goal was to raise $800 to help the family of five find and rent a safe home. But, thanks to selfless donors, more than $74,000 has been raised so far.
Complete shock
The 29-year-old mother couldn’t believe it. It seemed unreal to her that thousands of people were willing to donate even the smallest amount to her cause.
“I’m still in shock. I still don’t believe it,” she said. “I can’t believe there’s that many people willing to help me, of all people. I don’t believe I’m somebody for them to want to help.”
Let’s hope that Kenia and her children will feel empowered and stronger than ever after this adventure, and we are sure that they will never take having a home for granted from now on.
Hear Kenia’s full story in the video below.
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