Many of the women we see in the shelter are victims of abuse, sex trafficking and exploitation. We are committed to providing assistance, compassion, and a holistic approach, so they can begin to heal.
A shelter staff member, “Gloria” experienced hardship on the streets with addiction and homelessness. She shares with the women that they are God’s beautiful works of art and that they have value. She sees parts of herself in so many of them, and it breaks her heart because she remembers how terribly painful it was to be in their position. Many people showed her kindness along the way -she wasn’t always able to accept it -but she never forgot them.
Gloria’s wounds are being healed as she takes care of others. The idea of preserving her own dignity was foreign to her. She sees that in a lot of the women at the shelter and she follows the example of those who treated her as though her dignity meant something even though she didn’t believe it.
Gloria feels very motherly towards the women in the shelter, no matter what their age. In her addictions she didn’t mature at all, and it wasn’t until she began to walk with God at the age of 52 that she started to grow up.
Gloria shares -“When I wash and fold their laundry, I’m always mindful of a moment in my old life when a nurse handed me a change of clothes after a traumatic experience.” The clothes were folded, and something about this motherly touch broke through all the barriers she had up, for just a moment, and she felt somehow comforted. Gloria is now paying that forward when she folds the residents’ laundry.
