Hi, Benefactors and Kind-Hearted Donors,
The box I’m typing in doesn’t seem to accept supplementary documents. I have a few pictures and a small budget that you’ll want to see while evaluating my crucial request. The money is not for me but to protect elementary school students from direct physical harm and psychological trauma on a daily basis. No, it’s not that dark, but it is very serious. The impact on young children is probably not intentional, but it is nevertheless harmful. To fully explain the situation, I have put in Google Drive a description and a 2-minute film of the conditions small children face while walking to school each day. Please click on the link even without reading below because the details are there. Your choice. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K_fh5JvqA1pUIYjaUqW1LlKFYN9udsE1?usp=drive_link
The synopsis is that there is a mile-long road. A reputable elementary school sits about halfway along the road. The roadway has a publicly owned, paved sidewalk that many children use to walk to school. Most children are 5-9 years old and stand 3 to 5 feet tall. At one end of the roadway is a well-to-do community. At the other end is a ghetto. The wealthy end showcases a pristine sidewalk, decorated with hand-painted Disney cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, etc. It is protected by a 3-foot guardrail all the way to the school. There is no brush or thickets to obstruct the children’s travel. It’s like walking in a fairytale.
On the opposite end of the roadway, the sidewalk is perennially covered by 6 to 8-foot tall foliage, thickets, and uncontrolled bushes with heavy thorns. The bushes grow wild on the left and right sides of the sidewalk. The overgrowth houses dead dogs, abandoned washers, stoves, truck tires, Poison Ivy, and Japanese knotweed that dominates all it touches. It grows up walls, utility poles, and across the floor of the sidewalk. The height and thickness of the bush prevent children from seeing out or the public from seeing into where the children walk. This is dangerous and provides optimum opportunity for predators. The sidewalk is narrow so the bushes on either side grow together causing the sidewalk to be impassable in most places, forcing the tiny children to walk in the streets and navigate speeding taxis. No guardrails are present on the poor end of the sidewalk. And of course, no professional artist has adorned the sidewalk with Popeye and his friends. Besides the multifaceted dangers and inconveniences to the little ones, they suffer psychological damage from knowing their more fortunate classmates have beautiful sidewalks, while the poorer children must tread through jungle-like conditions to reach the same school. Is this subtle racism or overt classism, or both? Regardless, these conditions are tantamount to systemic child abuse; and result in life-long psychological damage, mental anguish, stigmatization, and a devaluation of a child’s worth. Moreover, it is almost impossible to overcome.
Two years ago, I became so moved by the dramatically different conditions that I picked up a stick and started to beat down the bushes step by step. After 3 weeks, I saved enough money to buy a machete. That helped a lot! One man and one machete are no match for 6-foot-high bushes along a mile-long road. The brush grows back thicker and taller than I can chop it down. I volunteered to do this and paid all my expenses for 2 years. I need some basic equipment, such as a weed trimmer, to lighten my load and speed things along. I want to move beyond the “chopping” faze and into the “maintenance” faze, which is the only long-term solution. The government probably has higher priorities. But the safety of children can never wait. I need your help. The children and I will thank you and the world will remember you. Please donate.
My PayPal is:
PayPal: paypal.me/inetventurez2
Email: tingawk@gmail.com [In case anything goes wrong with the PayPal link. (Sorry, but I’m new at this.)]