Hina – opening doors
Hina has always worked, starting at the Commodore Ballroom when she was 13 to help out her single mother. She had a nice apartment, nice furniture and two cars. She had three children with a man she met in elementary school. In 2006, he was killed in the Downtown Eastside. This led to Hina and her children living in a shelter for three months before finding housing. Then her youngest son got into a car accident and almost died. One short year later, he was stabbed and again nearly lost his life.
“Right now, I’m not really able to leave [the apartment] to go anywhere because my son has anxiety and PTSD so I need to be with him 24/7,” Hina says. When she does get out, it is mostly to accompany her 17-year-old son to the many appointments he has on his road to recovery.
Last year, there were close to 700,000 visits to food banks in Metro Vancouver. Hina was among those visitors.
Beyond food
The single mother of three has struggled to make ends meet. This became even harder when her youngest son got into a car accident and was stabbed nearly losing his life – all within a year. Most of her time is spent helping him recover.
Much of Hina’s food and emotional support comes from Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, a United Way partner agency generously supported by United Way donors.
“I get my meat here at Frog Hollow, which is great,” Hina says. United Way supports food programs that not only help people like Hina get the food she needs but they also open doors and create opportunities for them to participate in other community programs and other social supports.
“It’s my only real escape from my world. It really is,” says Hina. “When I’m an emotional wreck, I’ve come up here and Eva’s always given me a big hug and given me a bag of pasta.’
Eva is Frog Hollow’s Food Security and Community Outreach Coordinator. She says about 120 families a year are served through the United Way-funded food security program.
“Maybe people don’t understand it but it just makes you feel really good when you don’t have anything and when you don’t have anybody. I think it’s something everybody needs,” says Hina.
“Maybe people don’t understand it but it just makes you feel really good when you don’t have anything and when you don’t have anybody.”
Send a note of encouragement to Hina
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