Browse By Mothers & Children

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  Melissa H

  Child(ren): 3 children, youngest Jordan, 2 years and 10 months old

  Issues: Food and Hunger, Education and Opportunity, Health, Environment, Violence and Trauma, Family, Breaking the Cycle

  "I had my three children to have someone to love me."

  See Melissa featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer

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  Shelly G

  Child(ren): three sons and a daughter

  Issues: Food and Hunger, Work and Child Care, Welfare & Assistance

  I don’t see how Welfare wants me to get out of the system if I don’t have enough. If this is a state that’s supposed to help me, you can’t keep on holding me back.  Help me out here, so I can get on my feet. Now I need it. I need [Welfare] to guide me to never need it again."

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  Angela M

  Child(ren): 5 children, youngest Samantha, 1 year and 10 months

  Issues: Health, Environment, Drugs, Violence and Trauma, Family, Childhood, Breaking the Cycle

  "I’m concerned with all my children but my son most definitely, especially with the young black men going to jail and killing one another.  My heart really goes out to him.  I tell him when I wash his football clothes, ‘Oh, mommy loves washing football clothes’ because that’s what I want him to do.  He’s eight, he’s getting older, and look at what he sees.  When he gets a couple years older I want to send him to some charter school.  That’s why I want him to keep his grades up."

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  Angelica R

  Child(ren): six children

  Issues: Food and Hunger, Housing, Work and Child Care, Health, Environment, Violence and Trauma, Welfare & Assistance, Family, Childhood, Breaking the Cycle

  "I went through a lot of stuff, but it’s all done with. I’m all right now, so I've got to move forward, can’t go back and change everything. The thing I tell my kids is don’t make the same mistakes."

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  Marinette R

  Child(ren): five children, aged 1 to 15

  Issues: Housing, Work and Child Care, Environment, Family, Childhood, Breaking the Cycle

  "I always say I would never give up on my kids. I always would try to do the best for them to at least graduate from high school because I’m not going to be able to afford for them to go to college or anything like that...I will never give up on them. I will always push them and try my best."

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  Tangela F

  Child(ren): Asiya, 1 and a newborn

  Issues: Food and Hunger, Health, Environment, Drugs, Violence and Trauma, Family, Childhood, Breaking the Cycle

  "Everything is not as good as it looks… It might look like we're not struggling on the outside but we really are. And stuff is really hard for us. Everybody's like, 'You're lucky, he takes care of his daughter.' He does that and I’m happy that he does that, but sometimes there are things that he can’t get for her that we need for her."

  See Tangela featured in a CNN Money Video on what it's like to raise a family with food insecurity.

  See Tangela featured in a second CNN Money video on the importance of employment.

  See Tangela featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer

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  Tiffany R

  Child(ren): Zaniyah, 1

  Issues: Food and Hunger, Housing, Environment, Violence and Trauma, Family, Childhood

  "His cousin was trying to get some other boy and shot Troy (my baby’s father) thinking it was someone else.  The gunshots just kept on going.  He got shot nine times.  All he was saying was, 'I’m gonna be alright.  I’m gonna be alright.'  And his eyes just closed.   I wanted to get an abortion after that because I was just thinking, 'How am I going to do this?'” 

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  Myra Y

  Child(ren): Todd,4

  Issues: Food and Hunger, Housing, Violence and Trauma, Family, Childhood

  Why me? Why do my bills have to get cut off for $84? I don’t have a hundred and something dollars a month to pay the gas, electricity, phone company, and buy Pampers and buy food, pay my rent. I don’t have money like that. I know God makes a way for everybody, but right now I’m struggling.
  

   

   

  See Myra featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

  Click below to see Myra's testimony on the importance of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.  The video was made for the Coalition on Human Needs.

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  Christina K

  Child(ren): 2 boys

  Issues: Housing, Health, Environment, Family, Childhood

  With Welfare now, what we get nowadays, it’s enough to live off of but it’s not enough to do anything to make our environment safer for our children... So the jobs that I need or that I want that I’m qualified for I can’t get because I need an education. And I tell [Welfare] that and it’s like, well, that’s just too bad, basically, you have to get a job. I need an education… But I’m held back, I’m at a standstill."

  See Christina featured in The Washington Post and a slide show.

  See Christina in the Share Our Strength blog.

   

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  Melanie H

  Child(ren): Shamar, 2

  Issues: Housing, Health, Environment

  How safe are you in this city? The police officer that just got killed the other day . . . if you could do that to a cop, what could you do to me? These kids, they need an outlet. And this community is not it. North Philly is not it... These kids have nowhere to go for safety or fun.