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THREAD: By the end of the year I plan to release something detailing my single mom friend in Indonesia’s story but as of now this will be a thread of her life. It’s by far one of the saddest, most inspiring stories I’ve ever heard & I want to explain as an American friend:
Hafsah was a teenager when she found out she was pregnant with Zacky. She had never had a good home life. Her strict Muslim parents disowned her for getting pregnant outside of marriage. She ended up on the actual street, pregnant and alone.
She’s detailed her journey from the beginning via her Instagram stories. She reached out to me & other pro-lifers. We searched high & low for pregnancy resources in her area and there isn’t any. This is a common problem when dealing with international cases which is why many
Orgs won’t help international. For example, a place came up labeled pregnancy center but it was just a regular hospital. Many people thought she was a scam because she was contacting them from abroad. However, I verified her story (she’s very open about it & will provide proof).
She didn’t have any family or friends to help her. No organizations. Anything. She doesn’t have the father’s contact info and the culture shames her for having a child outside of marriage.
She begged on Instagram for donations & God answered her prayers. She got enough together to rent one room for $80 USD per month. This was just a single room. Not a roommate situation. Didn’t even have a indoor bathroom. She slept on the floor & weighed 75lbs.
The town was dangerous and she was robbed when she was pregnant. However she kept faith things would get better. Then...
In August she found a place with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room for the same amount of rent.
Right before her move, a 13 year old on Instagram fundraised money for her. This money would not only help her move to a better area with more space for the baby but also pay for a life-saving stomach surgery. Around September she started experiencing intense and unbearable
Stomach pain. After going to the hospital she was diagnosed with a hemorrhaging stomach ulcer and had to have emergency surgery ASAP. Thankfully God already knew this and she had almost enough donations left to pay for it and then donors covered the rest.
A video from the night before the surgery. She always shares proof of what’s going on to her Instagram story. Likewise she often sends me photos of what she buys with my donations.
Video after her surgery. Update: surgery was a success and she’s now pain-free! Glory be to God!
Last night I found out she’s the only Christian in her entire family except a distant grandmother in Australia. Even that amazes me. She learned English in school when she was 14 in hopes of one day connecting with her grandma. She learned about Christianity from letters she sent
As of now, she’s tried to reach back out to her family multiple times but they want nothing to do with her. She has no one besides the few people who message her on social media. There’s not assistance there like here so she can’t work and watch the baby. She’s stuck & still
reliant on donations. She has big dreams for the future but everything is so difficult there. I’ve learned a lot from talking with her at nights (when I work mostly). She gets so many hate messages for asking for donations because people think she’s weak and a bum but I think
She’s one of the smartest and bravest people I know. She’s doing everything she can for her son. He’s her world and she’s a great mom. She just needs a little help. Things have been so much more complicated there (like everywhere) due to covid. She’s basically completely
home bound because babies are banned from many public places so they don’t get sick and there’s very little child healthcare in the country. She orders food & necessities from her phone.
She weighed 75lbs when the baby was born. She’s in the red. This is a photo from when a missionary visited to bring supplies one time. She shared with me last night. She’s now 85 & hopefully can gain weight since she had surgery & will not longer throw up. She recommended PayPal
I never knew what it was like in Indonesia before I met her and she’s really opened my eyes to how different and difficult the culture is. I hope this opens others eyes too.
All of her money went to the surgery so any donations are greatly appreciated and will go toward her rent, water, electricity, food, diapers and new clothes for Zacky as he’s getting so big. You can donate directly to her here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/hafsahcha
If you want to follow her journey or send her words of encouragement or even just talk to her, you can follow her Instagram here: https://instagram.com/empty.nothingg?igshid=1y1nah1dm4dkp
Also she started selling flavored macaroni to her neighbors for $1 per container. She asked that I pray over her “small macaroni business.” Please lift her and Zacky up in prayer:
Also when I say there’s no resources, I’ve checked. Looked low and high. It’s so different there. This is her story now. There’s more details in between but this is the summary.
