Heartwarming / Heartbreaking Story From New Orleans

LINK

Somewhat long read, but a good story.

Family moves here from California and buys a house. Kids meet local friends who start showing up to play. Vast majority of kids who show up are poor, hungry, and have no family life to speak of.

Wife eventually is so moved by this she quits her job and opens up am after-school center. 40-50 kids show up every day, they get homework help, a hot meal, stuff to do, 4 hours a day after school and 4 hours a day on Saturdays.

Basically is a labor of love for the family. Donations and support are inconsistent. Companies are resistent to help. Very little government money available. They put a ton of their own money into this.

10 years later, they are broke and have to shut down the facility. No savings and are now depending on help from others. They have tons of debt from money they borrowed to run the facility.

We piss away millions upon millons of government dollars on useless bullshite and can't help these kids. We have nonprofits that raise tons of money using charitable donations, yet that money goes to art studios and homeless crackheads.

I think it's also fair to say that this couple perhaps, while having a labor of love, may not have had enough business sense to make the numbers work, and/or to raise enough awareness with good PR to bring in more donors.

We can and should blame the parents (or parent) for not taking care of their kids, not having jobs, being crackheads, going to jail, etc. Most of these kids have no sense of life outside the hood, they don't know anyone who lives outside the hood. It's just a pathetic cycle.