She struggled through everything for me. I was nine years old when my parents finally got divorced. I say finally because we had a hard time at home when we were all together. My father was an alcoholic and every day we didn't know what to expect.
After the divorce, life wasn't much easier. Mom was unemployed, with three kids and without any help. The jobs that she found were poorly paid, and didn't last for long. She tried to hide all the worries that plagued her but we could feel her pain. Despite all the rough times that she went through, she always had a smile on her face and a caring heart for everyone around her.
When Mission Without Borders started supporting us, I felt safe knowing that at last, someone, somewhere, had her back. Everything I've been through has given me a passion to serve children in similar circumstances. At 15, I started volunteering at summer camps and Christmas puppet shows and later in local orphanages and the paediatric ward of the hospital, where I would dress up as a clown just to make the kids laugh.
I always wanted to have the opportunity to bless future generations as I received so many blessings myself as I grew up, but I never dreamed that I'd be offered a job working at the Mission. Now I get to share an office with the very people who helped us all those years ago.
Matea, whose family were sponsored when she was a child and now works for us in Bosnia-Herzegovina
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