This past week was pretty slow at my
internship, but nonetheless, very interesting. I am starting to get to know my
co-workers better which has been a lot of fun, and one of the girl’s I work
with had her birthday this past Wednesday.
Yesterday, a family came in with a
small baby that they had found in the middle of a field in the town I work in.
The baby was no more than ten months old and did not seemed disturbed by the
incident. The community center helped to place the baby in the care of welfare
services so the baby would be removed from danger.
A few hours later, the mother came
in looking for her child who she had left with a friend earlier this morning.
Both the mother and her friend were on substances and did not have the best sense
of what was going on.
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| Elizabeth with women at the First Community Resource Centre |
This was a moment that I think truly
affected me because I can never think of a time in which a child has been in a
similar situation. I had heard about incidents like this in my textbooks, on
the news and stories from relatives that do social work, but never had I seen a
woman so completely doped out and a baby, who had apparently been forgotten
many times in their short time of life, in the flesh.
This was not the Law and Order
episode I was used to, where with a few “bum bums” and the child and the mother
are brought to justice and the episode ends. The real world is not rushing to
the scene with Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay but real people who want
to rebuild their community in however they see fit.
This past morning I drove with that
woman to the rehabilitation center, as the Pastor and his fellow counselors ensured
her ability to attend the program regardless of her lacking ability to pay.
Before we left and we were waiting for her ride to the camp, the woman who I
work with offered her a cup of coffee to start her day with. This gesture I
think really sums up the people of Hanover Park, no matter what background you
come from or what circumstances surround you, you will be treated with dignity
and respect.
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