One chilly morning in November, Rosaline* came to AWE’s office. She was seven months pregnant, recently arrived in the US, and sleeping on a sofa at the small home of a relative of a friend who needed her out immediately. She needed healthcare, immigration legal assistance, food, and – very urgently – housing.
AWE enrolled Rosaline as a client and over the next 24 hours we scrambled to find emergency housing for her. We contacted shelters, volunteers and churches trying to find a safe and comfortable place for Rosaline.
We also gave Rosaline a gift card so she could buy food. The next day she called me in the afternoon. She was buying groceries at an African grocery store, and she’d just run into a childhood friend from her home country of Cameroon named Alice*! When Alice learned that Rosaline had recently arrived in the US, she told her, “You need to go to AWE. They will help you.” Rosaline explained that she had in fact gone to AWE the day before, and then asked me, “Do you know Alice?”
“Yes!” I laughed, “I know Alice!” Alice is a former client who came to AWE years ago as a pregnant woman herself. She had lived in AWE housing, participated in AWE’s Day Program and received holistic case management services. Rosaline handed Alice the phone and we spent a few minutes catching up. Then Alice said, “Rosaline can come stay with me in my home.”
I spoke with Rosaline to see if she was okay with this plan, and she said she would be very happy to stay with Alice while we worked on finding other options.
Later that day, I messaged Alice and thanked her for offering Rosaline emergency housing. “I am honored to do this,” she said. “AWE did this for me, let me do this for AWE.”
During Rosaline’s first week as an AWE client, she attended the first prenatal care and testing appointment of her pregnancy. She also received groceries, diapers, clothing, and items for her coming baby from AWE, and she attended ESL and other classes as a part of AWE’s Day Program.
Over the next few weeks Alice opened her home to Rosaline, gave her bed to sleep in, and welcomed her into her home, while AWE worked with Rosaline to secure long-term housing.
We are so grateful to Alice for her willingness to open her home, and the reminder that our big world is really, sometimes, very small in the most wonderful and surprising ways.
*Names changed to protect client privacy.
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