Ya is a single mother with two children — a daughter and a son — from two different husbands. Raising them on a garment worker's wage left almost no room for anything else, let alone a future of her own.
Her daughter struggled in school, and for years Ya carried the quiet weight of feeling she had nothing left to give beyond a paycheck. When she first came to one of our evening classes, she sat at the back and said very little. She had long since stopped believing that things could be different for her family.
A small class, a different kind of pressure
What changed wasn't a single moment, but a slow accumulation of them: a teacher who remembered her name, a lesson she actually understood, a Sunday she chose to come back to. Over months, Ya began attending the Empowerment program's counseling sessions alongside her English classes, and started talking — really talking — about what she wanted for her children, and for herself.
"I used to think my only job was to survive until the next payday. Now I think about who my children will become."
Perseverance, not perfection
Ya is still a single mother juggling factory hours with two children's needs. Nothing about her circumstances disappeared overnight. What did change is the way she carries it — with more confidence, more community, and a quiet kind of hope that wasn't there before.
Her daughter is now back on track at school, encouraged by watching her mother go to class after a full shift. Ya says that's the part she's proudest of.