Teach a Man to Fish and You Feed Him for a Lifetime
August 4, 2010
“Anything seems possible now. I have been blessed!” Abby’s enthusiasm touches my heart because I know that she could easily be living another, much harder life. But Abby didn’t let that happen. Here is her courageous story.
As a child, Abby’s supportive, single mom moved from Alabama to Ohio working in factories and living in low-income, brick tenements. Abby was forbidden to go out of her apartment, but without air conditioning in the stifling heat of summer, she often sat on the front stoop, where gang members sold drugs and young women lost their way.
Her disrupted, harsh and crowded life in inner city ghettos led Abby to lose respect for herself and life in general. Changing schools several times left her feeling lost. To make matters worse, her mother died. Misery and helplessness stared her in the face and life became too terrible to bear. Abby got pregnant and dropped out of high school.
Abby dearly missed her mother. She thought of her happiness and early childhood connection with the Edmundite Missions. As a young girl in Selma, she followed her friends to St. Edmund Learning Center to participate in computer classes and Bible study. Abby recalls, “Everybody in my neighborhood just loved going to the Center. It was a magical place for kids to learn.”
Making an early connection with the Learning Center left a lasting, life-affirming impression on Abby. She and her children moved back to Selma to be near her beloved grandmother. She stopped in at the Center and it wasn’t long before Sister Norma took her under her wing. Encouraged by Sister’s faith in her, Abby began taking classes for her GED. “Sister Norma didn’t let me give up,” she says.
After receiving her GED, Abby enrolled in a local college. But just two classes short of her graduation, she ran out of savings and financial aid.
“Sister Norma said we’d find a way and we did,” Abby explains. “I’d come too far to quit.” Today, thanks to her degree, Abby has a good job in data processing. She and her family have health insurance and they live in a clean, safe apartment in an urban neighborhood. When God’s light dispelled the fear of failure in Abby’s heart, hope rose above despair.
Abby’s story is reminiscent of so many children with the odds against them. Recent studies report that 69% of African Americans who drop out of school are unemployed. Many are single mothers who live in grinding poverty, dependent on state aid.
Yet, when a young African American child gets a taste of educational success, it builds self esteem and the dream of a better life looks a lot closer than it ever did before. The Edmundite Learning Centers help teenagers earn GEDs. Students learn the importance of education in math, language, social studies and science classes four days a week. Instructors prepare students to take tests, but more importantly, they provide encouragement for longheld aspirations.
Today, the Edmundite Missions Learning Center continues to instill a life-long love of learning, while providing a safe haven for the children of working parents. It costs $1,544 to pay for educational expenses such as books, replacement computers, class room supplies and utilities. To upgrade the classroom computer to a current version of word processing /spreadsheet software costs $250. The Center has programs for young children, teenagers and adults, working to help educate more than 3,358 individuals over the past two years.
A child has to eat in order to learn. Raising money for basic needs like food, clothing and shelter isn’t easy, but this is nothing compared to the challenge of finding funds to support our Learning Centers. The Edmundite Missions not only brings hope, it also brings health and sustenance, 220 meals a day, 365 days a year at Bosco.
Your donations provide warm, nutritious food to many families, children and elders as well as books, dedicated teachers and educational opportunities. We so often hear the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” With Abby as just one example, I urge you to reflect deeply on her courage as well as her success, made possible by donations to the Edmundite Missions.
I can’t do it without your help.
Serving the Lord,
Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E.
