Posted on: Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Bed, bike, clothes, lamps — that's wish list for three
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
None of it mattered when "A.H." was high.
It didn't matter to her that when her husband was home, he abused her. It didn't matter that he had a woman on the side who would also be the mother of two of his children. "I thought it was OK," recalls A.H. "I thought I owed him."
A.H. was an addict. Ice, alcohol and marijuana seemed to make unbearable things bearable. But when she became pregnant with her daughter, A.H. had to look for new ways to make her life better.
She entered an in-patient drug treatment program and is thankful she had that opportunity. She knows programs like that and vacancies in them are far too rare in Hawai'i.
The program worked. A.H. has been clean for three years. Now divorced, she's raising her children on her own. Sometimes it's tough, but A.H. is committed to her new life.
To donate, send checks payable to "The Advertiser Christmas Fund" to Helping Hands Hawai'i, P.O. Box 17780, Honolulu, HI 96817. Monetary donations also may be dropped off at any First Hawaiian Bank branch. Goods can be donated at the Community Clearinghouse at 2100 N. Nimitz Highway, near Pu'uhale Road. Details, call 440-3804. A.H. is concentrating on her relationship with her kids, making it right for them. She wants to give them the best home she can provide. This Christmas, she could use a little help.
A.H. needs a bed for her 3-year-old daughter and would like for her son, 6, to have a bike. The kids need clothes, and A.H. would like a couple of lamps so the family can read at night.
Donations to the Christmas Fund will be used for those who need help making it through the holidays. Money remaining after the holidays will be go to those in need throughout the year.
Our anonymous Santa is matching the first $25 of each donation to the Christmas Fund.
• • • Recent donations
Total $1,675
Previous total: $2,015
Total to date: $3,690
"When I gave birth to my son, they literally had to wake me up and tell me I was having contractions," she said.
She dreams of someday becoming a heavy-equipment operator but, for now, she works at a school, cleaning rooms and helping out. It allows her to spend time with her children at the end of the school day.
HOW TO HELP
