There she sits on the floor of her home sorting through envelope after envelope in tears. Each envelope is filled with bad news, “You’re overdue”, “We will cut off your power if your bill is not paid by xx date”, “You’re denied”, “We cannot help provide you with financial assistance,” and so on and so on. Meanwhile her kids are running around in the house wondering why Mommy is crying yet again. Her shoulders are caved in, and she tries to fight back tears but they just roll down her cheeks anyways. She looks up to heaven and asks God, “What did I do to deserve this?” and there’s a constant knot in her stomach wondering if everything is going to cave in. This is the reality for most women who leave domestic violence.
Child support, if paid, is usually not enough to cover even basic rent, utilities and food. Financial assistance from government programs, if approved, rarely meet the needs for her to provide for all of the kids while also maintaining transportation to conduct child exchanges that are required from her divorce or custody agreement. It’s a constant uphill battle after seasons of despair and distress inside the relationship she fled from. She is also facing embarrassment of a failed marriage and shame from the whole situation. She will likely hear words like, “Well she brought it upon herself,” or “she got what she deserved.” But in reality, she was trying inside the relationship and the divorce or separation was the last case scenario after exhausting every other method.
Now, she is responsible (even if she co-parents) for providing for herself and the children emotionally, physically, mentally all while maintaining a job that is also not paying the rent. She is likely in debt from the divorce if she had any legal representation and if she was a stay at home mom, without resources. Most women who experience domestic violence inside the marriage will experience their former spouse cut them off financially quickly after leaving. This leaves the single mom as one of the most vulnerable members of society with one of the heaviest loads. The bible talks relentlessly about how the community is responsible for the widows and fatherless. This is referring to both a woman who has a spouse that dies and one that is divorced. Instead of punishing her, we can do something immensely greater. We can offer her ways to earn more income with flexible hours from home.
She faces higher stakes especially as a toddler or infant mother. Many mothers believe in the importance of being with the child for development reasons until the age of 5, but struggle to find ways to earn income while doing so. In a day of technology and global communication tools, we can make a difference in this woman’s life and help her children. We can put aside just $10 a month to help her have materials to produce handmade goods. That way she can work throughout the day on something tangible for sale. We can purchase products that she makes instead of ordering one more thing on Amazon, Wal-mart of Target. We can offer her words of encouragement and tell her how proud we are of her for being brave and leaving what she had to leave out of survival.
That’s why we have created The Market. It’s an online e-commerce destination for single moms to produce and sell handmade goods. They receive a higher rate than most marketplaces and the proceeds of each sale go to a single mom so she can pay for rent, utilities and food for her family. The goal is to help mother’s create financial independence and stability so that raising their kids is the concern… not which bill is going to have to be held off from getting paid this month. No mother deserves to live in fear of her basic needs being met. You can make a difference. Even if you can only donate a $1, every single dollar helps.
We’ve just released a limited edition capsule collection of purses for purchase, and more are on their way. As we expand we will be able to provide more and more sources of income and jobs for women who have little ones to tend to. We also are going to provide instructional course to help them gain skills around debt relief, financial management, and trade skills that they can do from home. No child should suffer and if the mother is in extreme distress, the children reap the consequences. Check out The Market here. We are so grateful for you help, love, support and encouragement as we move forward with this organization.
