Here in the Bay Area in California, we have several pockets of impoverished communities. Children born to these neighborhoods, like far to many in the United States, have to walk by daily drug deals, gangs and the threat of their own safety.
Their parents know no other life. They have no hope of ever living life any different than what they currently know.
In 1999 I met a young woman who was married and had two children. She and her husband were experimenting with drugs and risking their children’s safety. Unfortunately, they had never known any other life and nothing which to compare it. Everyone they knew had the same lifestyle.
One day I asked her if she was willing to give up her two daughters. Of course she insisted that she would never do that. My answer was that it was exactly what she was proposing to do unless she gave up the drugs immediately.
In February 2007 this same young woman was my waitress at an upscale restaurant. She reminded me of the story and thanked me for taking the time to talk with her 8 years prior.
Simply intervening with her interest at heart changed her life as well as the lives of her two daughters.
Where one person steps up to the challenge, others will follow.