Christmas Appeal for Destitute Families, Abandoned Women & Youth-at-risk

Greetings from aLife, and I hope this finds you in good health & spirits!

As 2020 comes to a close, in a pandemic-ridden world, our thoughts turn to loved ones and family; we are especially reminded of all that 2020 has come to represent. This festive season will prove a watershed in our living memory; in the wake of COVID-19, our lives have been upended and redefined in ways nobody could have predicted a year ago.

Several aLife clients have had the bottom fall out of their world. Before the onset of the pandemic, many families were already feeling the pinch of hardship, owing to the slowdown in the economy. Their livelihoods were on the line, as companies downsized and pared back expenses.

Demographically, most of the clients we support have issues above and beyond the common man; apart from dire financial need, many of our beneficiaries are starkly worn down by psychological factors, concomitant with the constant struggle to keep themselves and their loved ones safe, fed and whole.

Take Diana*(not her real name), who was abandoned by her spouse, recently retrenched, and is now forced to move in with her aged mother, to eke out a living as an odd-job cleaner. Her three children are too young to comprehend why she no longer has time to spend with them. Diana recently discovered she was 3-months pregnant. The timing couldn’t be worse. At the end of her tether, she sought to terminate her pregnancy at one of the polyclinics where aLife maintains a presence.

By exercising tact and a listening ear, our Resource Facilitator managed to convince Diana not to act in haste without first reviewing all her options. Through aLife’s timely intervention, Diana was referred to a local agency fo