Children's Institute, Inc.: News Article: Blanca's Story: Why Your Support Matters

January 13, 2012

Blanca's Story: Why Your Support Matters

Please read Blanca’s story and donate to CII today.

My name is Blanca, I am 11 years old, and this is my story:

I was born in Central Los Angeles and from my earliest memory, there was always a lot of yelling and fighting. My mom always had different men in the house — none of them were very nice. All of my mom’s boyfriends would hit her, my sisters and me every day. Things got much worse when my mom would leave the house. She would leave for a day or two at a time and our neighbor Lucy would check in on us. Lucy also had a really bad boyfriend who would yell at her and hit her while she was at our house. At first, he would only beat up on Lucy. Eventually he started yelling at us and beating my sisters and me too.

Then last October, Lucy and her boyfriend got into their biggest fight ever. He started chasing after me and my sisters with an electrical cord and Lucy was trying to stop him from hurting us. Lucy killed him that day with one of our kitchen knives. There was blood everywhere. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen. Until I got help from Children’s Institute, I was scared of just about everything and I no longer wanted to go to school or even leave my room.

I felt so alone and it seemed that my sisters and me were abandoned and forgotten by our mom.

Blanca and her sisters are among the countless innocent victims of violence, abuse and neglect who populate some of the most devastated neighborhoods of Los Angeles. And tens of thousands more children are at risk.

With the help of our caring and committed therapists, Blanca and her sisters were able to move beyond the trauma in their pasts. But without intervention, many other children will join gangs, drop out of school, abuse drugs, spend time in prison and become abusive parents themselves … repeating the cycle of abuse and victimizing a new generation of children.

Too many children — too many families — are falling through the cracks. Because of generous CII donors, Blanca had an opportunity to tell her story, but so many children are voiceless. With increased support, we will have the means to help thousands of other children who desperately need help.

Please help these children in our community by making a donation to CII.

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