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School For Homeless Children
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The crisis after Hurricane Katrina has created thousands of new homeless people, including school-aged children. A program in Sacramento has spent years helping transient young people find some stability, by offering them classes free of charge, for as long as they need them. As Kim Riemland reports, the Mustard Seed School offers a haven, and hope, for its students. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Sacramento, CA)
Living on the streets or in a shelter, it’s no place for a child. But families with children make up 40 percent of our country’s homeless population. They struggle to meet the most basic of needs.
For children, one of those basic needs is education. Here at the Mustard Seed School in Sacramento, being homeless won’t stand in the way of staying in school.
The Rev. Linda Kelly/United Methodist minister: “It gives them a place where they can keep up with their studies, where they can know that learning is important, that they are important.”
United Methodist pastor Linda Kelly is the spiritual director of Loaves and Fishes Village, a daytime shelter which runs the school for homeless kids.
The Rev. Linda Kelly: “It's important that the children feel like they have a place where they can be without worrying about what they wear to school, how they got to school or that their parents are living on the street or in a shelter.”
That’s something 13-year-old Ben understands.
Ben: “It would just be too hard to be in a public school with all the homework and all the schoolwork and having to deal with all those kids and stuff like that.”
Anna: “I'm five!”
Anna hasn’t missed a beat, even though she and her mom have moved from shelter to shelter.
Carmen Combs/Mother: “They've helped her with her alphabet and her painting and her coloring and lots of projects that they've done in child development to help keep her where she needs to be.”
Anna’s mom hopes to get back into a permanent home soon, and transition Anna into a public school. Thanks to this school, she’ll be ready.
Carmen Combs: “It's an amazing program to help you through a tough time.”
TAG:
More than 3000 children have attended the privately-funded Mustard Seed School since it was established in 1989. Many of them stay only a few weeks, until they get more stable housing and can enroll in a public school.
For more information, contact the Loaves and Fishes program in Sacramento at (916) 446-0874.