Beyond Diapers and Food, Patricia Finds a Path for the Future at Baby Help Center in Argentina

A single parent, Patricia has for the past five years been selling antiques to collectors and flea markets to earn whatever wages she can. Though she can only commit to a sporadic, part-time schedule while caring for her children, even the young woman’s challenging current situation is an improvement over the past.

Patricia and her children used to live in the countryside, where she worked as a housekeeper. Unable to afford gas and other utilities, the young mother would build a fire from wood in order to prepare food for her family. When she or one of the children got sick, they would have to walk 30 minutes to the nearest town for medical care.

Six months ago, following her father’s advice, Patricia came to the Jewish community to ask for help to stave off her children’s hunger and turn her life around. Through a network of social assistance centers run by JDC in partnership with the Tzedaka Foundation, AMIA, Chabad Luvabitch, the Sepharadic Communities and others, the family now receives monthly assistance to purchase food and to rent the hotel room where they live. Full scholarships are being provided for the children to attend a Jewish Day School where they can learn about their heritage and interact with other young Jews. In addition, the two youngest girls are part of Baby Help, a JDC program that provides at-risk pregnant women and children up to three years of age with basic essentials, including food, milk, diapers, and all vaccines not secured by the Argentine government.

In response to Argentina’s economic collapse which pushed tens of thousands of Jews below the poverty line and put a great number of pregnant mothers and young children at risk of malnutrition and poor health, the Baby Help program, created in 2003, began to offer both material and social support. Patricia avails herself of the comprehensive services offered by JDC’s Baby Help Center in Buenos Aires: a day care and summer camps, so that she can work; activities and classes to learn about her children’s development and how interact with them; and celebrations of Jewish lifecycle events — including Brit Mila (circumcision) and Simchat Bat (baby naming), which are otherwise prohibitively expensive — holidays, and birthdays.

"Baby Help is not only a basket full of useful things and toys that we get. It is the support and the certainty that someone is there, on the other side of the phone, ready to listen to me," said Patricia, who had nearly lost hope for a healthy future for herself and her children. "I have found a path, a social world. I am not drifting away anymore; I am not at the edge. And the kids are not at the edge of malnourishment anymore. With the Jewish help, I know they can eat meat and will be well."

Baby Kesare’s tears subsided as she began to eat from her bottle. And though Drina finally slowed down long enough to let her mom change her diaper, Alicia continued sneezing and Noe’s complaints echoed through the small room that the family has come to call "home." But now Patricia seems strikingly calm in her daily routine, confident that she will be alright and that, with time and assistance, she will continue to learn how to better manage her responsibilities.

Looking at the second-hand clock that rests beside the bed, Patricia rallies the children out the door and down to the street below. Patricia struggles to lift the baby carriage while bracing Kesare in her arm as the five of them catch a packed bus to the Baby Help Center.