Dec 23, 2008 4:10 pm US/Eastern
Organization Brings Smiles To Homeless Kids' Faces
ROXBURY (WBZ) ―
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Horizons For Homeless Children is an organization that offers school for homeless children.
WBZ
Like most people, Robert and Alexis never thought they'd be living in a shelter -- with two young children.
Everything just hit back to back, says Robert Cintron, who has been homeless since 2005. "Troubles just came back to back. We lost our jobs so that forced us to be evicted. We couldn't pay the bills."
At the time, they had a son, Robert who's now 4 years old, and Alexis was pregnant with their daughter, now 2-year-old Ny-elize.
One day they found
Horizons for Homeless Children in Roxbury, where their children attend school and simply forget about the fact that they're homeless.
"That's one thing that got me through being homeless and going through shelters was making sure the kids were happy," says Alexis Lougo, the children's mother.
They are happy because they have everything at their fingertips, thanks to donations that Horizons continues to request.
"Fifteen minutes reading one on one with a child just takes them to wonderful places," says Sue Heilman, Executive Director of Horizons. "Playing with Play Doh, building with block, drawing and painting."
There are more than 100,000 children who are homeless in Massachusetts. More than 2,000 are living in shelters who are under the age of 6.
Horizons for Homeless Children is helping the kids forget about that but this holiday season and after they need your help.
Heilman said that in addition to toy donations, Horizons also needs volunteers to work in their 150 playspaces located in family shelters across the state.
After training, the volunteers' jobs would be to simply play with the children.
Alexis and Robert say their children are a lot smarter than other kids their age. The couple says the agency also helped them find a temporary apartment and jobs, but they have one wish left to fulfill for their children. Alexis wants to buy a home.
"It's my future -- five- to 10-year goal," Alexis says, "But I definitely want that for them so that when they're older, they never have to turn to what I had to."
Help Horizons For Homeless Children
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