Heather - An International Story
Heather is a woman in her early 30s who has overcome homelessness. She was born in Kyrgyzstan before the collapse of the USSR. Heather grew up with her two parents and her brother. She shared that her parents were fleeing the Soviet Regime and that "everyone had to adjust to the living because everything all of a sudden changed. It was hard to obtain jobs, and to live and learn independently." Heather mentioned that her childhood was not extravagant, but that the American Red Cross donated lots of food, toys, and clothes to her family and others escaping the Soviet Regime, which helped everyone a lot.
Heather went to a school opened by American missionaries from 6-13 because she had always been close with Americans and was quite motivated to study English. The Americans also helped her and her family, despite the USSR propaganda.
After learning English, Heather began getting information about how school systems worked outside of the Soviet Regime and she realized that what the politicians were saying was completely false, even though most people believed them.
Heather was later accepted into an American university in 2008 opened in the capitol by Hillary Clinton, where she studied anthropology. However, she later dropped out due to the state of the country. She shared: "The things I had seen, were a lot, and that's what made me motivated to help people because back there, there was no protection for people, no one cared about human rights from the government point of view." Heather then shared examples of the government's lack of care. She said that one day when she was 10 years old, a victim of domestic violence began banging on her door, and the police blamed the victim for putting herself in a situation to get assaulted. She also spoke about another time she had to call the police because a drunk man was breaking into a neighbor's home, but the police never responded because they thought it was a prank.
Heather shared: “It made me so infuriated that I had to do something, because this is the thing, nobody's there to help.” She began volunteering at Habitat for Humanity the year a revolution broke out. She was a part of the "people" in the revolution until the government was looking for volunteers to help settle everything. She volunteered and even went to her country's version of the senate to help them send out volunteers. However, after seeing how the government was really treating people she shared: "I knew at that point the government literally didn't care," so she joined the people again.
Heather mentioned that at this time there were lots of people in front of the White House, and that the president ordered the guards to shoot anyone who tried to invade. Due to the trauma that this event caused, some of her memory was erased…
Continue reading Arielle Zappia's full article on Project Why's website