By Minerva Briones
On a Monday afternoon, Rebecca Flores came to the bus station to drop off some clothing. As we went to the parking lot to put the clothing into my vehicle, I noticed the bags included children’s clothes.
Later that night a bus from Lubbock arrived, and a regular woman passenger brought us a young mother with a 3-year- old girl. She was coming from Denver, well, originally from New York. This passenger told me that the little girl was vomiting on the bus and had diarrhea. The woman asked me if we could help the little girl and I thanked her for bringing them to my attention.
The mother has been here in this country little over two months according to her paperwork, so she wasn’t eligible for the Migrant Resource Center.
I learned that she was running away from an abusive partner and the little girl was sick to her stomach and had her pants dirty because of the diarrhea.
I remembered the clothes that were dropped off earlier by Rebecca, I went to my vehicle and got three pairs of pants and little blouses and socks. I went to the restroom with them; the pants and blouse fitted perfectly! As the title implies, I believe that was providential. God knew that this was going to happen, so we were prepared to help.
I had also heard that recently IWC hired a hospitality coordinator.
I called Katie Myers, the IWC Bus Station Coordinator, and told her about this case. She gave me all the information in needed. I got in touch with the new Hospitality coordinator, Kabibi Bamuamba who asked me if the girl needed to go to the ER. I told her I didn’t think so and that I gave her Pedialyte while we were waiting.
Kabibi called the mother right away. I stayed with the mother and little girl while they waited for a Lyft. The Lyft was canceled by the drivers twice, but they were finally picked up and taken to a hotel room for the night.
The young mother was so grateful. With tears in her eyes, she said that she wouldn’t have known what to do alone in San Antonio, where she didn’t know anyone.
“Gracias por todo lo que hacen!” – Thanks for everything that you do!
And that’s why we do this at IWC.
