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With JDC Baby Help, Pia Can Foresee Her Plans Coming True Soon
Affording a house can be one of the most serious challenges to face a young family such as Pia's. "Something is in fact lacking," says the 22-year-old mother of two. "We have no home."
Pia, her husband and two children — Madia, age 2, and Carla, 2 months — live at her in-laws’ house in the formerly middle-class neighborhood of San Martín, a district in Greater Buenos Aires that in the aftermath of Argentina’s December 2001 economic crisis has become home to people of low economic resources. While Pia greatly appreciates the generosity of her parents-in-law, who themselves have young children, she feels that her nuclear family will not be able to develop properly without a home of their own. "I think it is important for us to have a place where we can deal with our own problems and joys in some degree of privacy," Pia admits. In the meantime, Pia is doing all she can to help make ends meet for her family. She works at Mc Donald's in the local Carrefour Supermarket, where she was hired three years ago. "I'd like to quit my job and spend more time with my children if I could," she says. "My children are my most important asset and my reason for living." Nonetheless, Pia has to leave Madia and Carla each day for her shift, where she waits on other parents with their children. "I observe mothers with their kids, families having fun, laughing, hugging, or arguing," she says. "I wish I could be one of them." But Pia is clear that she must persevere in both her job and motherhood. Though she only makes $50 per month and is away from her house nearly all day, she knows this money is vital for her family's survival. Her husband, Ramon, is presently unemployed and doing odd jobs such as electrical repairs, selling cards in the street, or working at a phone center, earning less than $15 per month. Pia's family receives significant assistance from JDC. Baby Help provides her with the basic needs for herself and her children — including milk, diapers, and medicines — and she receives a Coto debit card to purchase food items at the supermarket. Through JDC, Pia has also reconnected with the Jewish community and her own Jewishness. She wants her children to attend Jewish day school, though tuition is unaffordable on her salary. "I know that there are plans that may help me achieve this aim," says the young mother. Pia's wishes are simple and far from luxurious: a house of her own, more time with her family, and to be part of her community. Many times at her workplace, while she is serving a young child a soda, she observes him and his family enjoying their dinner. "I can't help but think that I would like to be with my children in the evening, too." September 2005 |
