GROW - Support Group
GROW - Gathering and Reaching Out Widows provides a supportive community and educational platform that helps young widows connect, support each other, and impact their local community while fostering resilience and optimism. We offer classes on essential topics like social & emotional support, finance basics, family care, gratitude journaling, workplace tips, life skills, and health & wellness to aid in the grieving process which can take a toll on one's mental and physical well-being. Our self-care workshops provide effective tools and strategies to help widows prioritize their own needs during this difficult time. Our program features 30-45 minute workshops and seminars. We understand that it can be challenging for the widowed to resume their lives as usual, which can have devastating effects on the family unit. Therefore, our program acts as a valuable resource, providing refuge and restoration for families in need.
HUGS - Cards & More
HUGS - Helping Us Grieve and Smile is our 12 month card & basic essentials campaign that encourages the widowed by sending them a card on a monthly basis, including holidays and memorable days for the widow/er. It's a year long communication campaign that touches widows/ers from the perspective of a fellow widow/er. They receive a touching, supportive or encouraging card including cards for special dates like birthdays, holidays & anniversaries. Amazingly, when the widowed are shown love & support, it improves their rate of grief recovery, reduces stress, depression & loneliness. If you or someone you know would like to be added to the HUGS campaign, click here.
GRIP - Mental Health Wellness
GRIP - Grief, Resilience & Inner Peace is our flagship 12 week group therapy program. It's a peer grief support counseling program that uses the Grief Recovery Method with licensed Grief Recovery Counselors to help effectively counsel participants through their grief. Using hands on exercises, participants are healed from an emotional perspective inside out. Pain is exposed, myths about grief are busted, stress is reduced and healing happens. This is offered in a no judgement zone, open environment where trust and confidentiality are established and cultivated: participants share from the heart, express their challenges & dare to dream again. You can take this class at any time during your journey whether you're a new widow or a remarried one. This class is for adults 18+ open to widows, widowers and their families. Click here to find out when our next class is being offered.
CARE - Housing Support
CARE - Comfortable and Affordable Residential Environment Army Remembrance Memories is a housing program that aids our widows with affordable housing options. We provide safe and affordable housing for young widows who may be struggling to maintain their living situations.
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Hospital Payment Relief Program
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's normal to prepay for your care in a hospital. The system is set up so that if you're not able to pay in advance, you go to a facility that treats people for free. These are normally in rural areas and have long waiting lines. So when you are able to afford a fee based hospital in Kinshasa, DRC, you pay for treatment first, then you are then treated. If by chance you require additional services, then an additional money needs to be paid. For example, if you check into a hospital to have a baby naturally, you pay for that service upon arrival. If you end up having a c-section due to complications with the birth, the c-section bill will need to be paid before you can be released to go home. If you're not able to pay the balance due, then you are not permitted to leave the premises. No questions asked. You are essentially held hostage until your debt is paid in full. People (including children) can remain in the hospital for many months at a time for hospital bills as little as $100.
This leaves a widow, who is likely the only bread winner, in a very difficult position. If she has young children at home, they are left helpless to tend for themselves or be taken care of by the community. Many times widows are looked upon as outcasts in developing countries and as a result it's difficult to receive aid from family or friends. Rendering them wards of the medical system for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. The ripple effect this has on the family and community is profoundly devastating.
This leaves a widow, who is likely the only bread winner, in a very difficult position. If she has young children at home, they are left helpless to tend for themselves or be taken care of by the community. Many times widows are looked upon as outcasts in developing countries and as a result it's difficult to receive aid from family or friends. Rendering them wards of the medical system for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. The ripple effect this has on the family and community is profoundly devastating.
Often children, from babies to teenagers, remain in hospitals for months after receiving simple treatments for things like malaria. Even they are not allowed to go home if their family can not afford to pay their hospital bill. As a result, they end up missing school which can cause them to be left behind. Since their immune systems are still vulnerable, they easily become comprimised when staying in hospitals for long periods of time and often become infected again. Hospitals are dangerously overcrowded with multiple patients per bed resulting in diseases spreading quite easily. In addition, it is the responsibiiity of the family members to feed and provide basic essentials for their loved one in the hospital every day. Facilities do not provide food or the basic essentials to detainees. If the patient's family lives far away this becomes a challenging burden to maintain, potentially making a bad situation grave.
Infinity steps in by helping widows and their children become free. There are 2 stages of assistance. Stage 1 pays for the outstanding hospital bill, which allows the widow(er) to leave the hospital. Stage 2 helps the widow(er) become financially independent. Oftentimes if they were working, they have been replaced due to an extended absence away from the job. Or if they have an existing micro business,after being kept in hospital for weeks or months, the inventory that they had was sold. Any profit gained was used to maintain the family. In stage 2 we provide them with a sum of money that they can use to either purchase new goods and continue their existing business or be trained to start a new venture. This small seed donation will aid in empowering them to return to society sooner than otherwise. This also enables them to be self sufficient and serve as an asset to their community.
