Meet Carmena. At 22 years old, she had to leave college to be the sole provider for her parents. Her dad unexpectedly needed surgery for appendicitis, leaving him bedridden and unable to work to pay off the hospital bills. Carmena was one of the youngest of her six siblings and still close to home which meant she needed to care for her family. She becamer her father’s caretaker when he started losing his strength to get better. He shared with her how to manage the house, property, and animals as he was no longer able to, and Carmena became overwhelmed at the weight of responsibilities.
Carmena felt alone as she worked tirelessly to make ends meet for the family. Her main priority was taking care of them. She shared, “I have many dreams. I want to give them a good life, not like before when we couldn’t even borrow a kilo of rice.” She had gone through so much in life already, from being caught in a typhoon, to watching her family suffer the effects of her brother's alcoholism, and to seeing her brother, mother, and now father in the hospital from various accidents.
Through all the struggles, Carmena kept going. She found a job at Dignity which gave her a new sense of strength and purpose. It provided her with stability, security, and community that she so desperately wanted. Beyond meeting physical needs, her work also grew a deep sense of inner confidence. She shared, “I learned to trust myself and the process, which is something I didn’t do before. In other jobs, I would just give up and go home if I didn’t feel capable. Here, I learned to believe in myself.”
