by Wesley Sundin, Major –
Story time is a favorite time at the Aurora Day Care Center. Photo by Sue Warner. |
Imagine yourself as a family from Nigeria, alone in a foreign country, having difficulty speaking the language. You are married with twin girls who are toddlers. You are desperately in need of a job, but they are hard to come by for a foreigner. If you could just find a day care center to take care of your kids, it would be easier to look for work and become self-supporting.
Enter The Salvation Army Aurora Day Care Center in Aurora, Colorado. Day Care Center Director Stephanie McSweeney heard of this need, and has agreed to provide a scholarship for the twins to allow them to come to the center while the father seeks employment, and the mother goes to work at a local nursing home. It was a godsend for this family, providing much needed relief in a time of crisis.
This is not an isolated case, but one of many for poor families who depend on the welfare system to live—who want to raise their living standards—but struggle to do so because there is no one to care for and love their children.
Each day, the Aurora Day Care Center provides shelter, three meals a day, recreation, training in moral values, and appropriate age education classes. This place is a little bit of heaven for children and their parents.