Speechless

I'm at a loss for words....Today Gina and I visited a young girl named Vanessa 14 and her siblings - Josue 10, Esau 5 and Esdrys 1.  This girl is on my heart continuously because she is super smart and would like to have an education.  Instead of going to school, she cares for her brothers and sister while Mom works.  She used to go to some sort of night school but that changed last week when her mom got a "new job".  She is gone from home every day and every night - she comes back 2 days a week for about 4 hours in the morning and then leaves again.  So Vanessa is left alone to care for the children, cook, clean and do everything a mother would do all day, all night, every day and night.  Today her mom was home but when we visited around noon, Mom was already gone.  What we found was heartbreaking.  Vanessa didn't want us to come in the house (2 small rooms) because she was embarrassed about how messy it was.  I had some food for her so she had to let me in and after she was in there a few minutes straightening up, we saw that the place was horrid.  There were no sheets on the bed, food, trash and dirty diapers all over the floor, and dishes that had not been washed in days.  It was smelly and filthy and just so sad!  If this was in the US, Child Protective Services would be called and the kids would be taken away but not here.  Here, it's up to us to help these kids.  Then we ask each other what is the best way to help?  We can do the basics like help her clean, bring her to our home for meals and help with laundry.  But how can we change the life of this sweet, beautiful and smart 14 year old???  We are praying hard for an answer.

We have known her family for about 5-6 months now.  Her mom came to our house one night and explained that she heard that we build houses for people and she needed one.  She is a single mom and rents 2 small rooms for her family and would like to have her own house and not have to pay rent.  If she didn't have to pay rent, she wouldn't have to work so hard selling food in the city and have to be away from her family so much.  From then on, we got to know her family by visiting them often and inviting them to our house.  The 10 year old boy, Josue, cannot go to school because he is either Autistic or mentally retarded, not sure which.  We love them all but especially Vanessa because she is very smart and would LOVE to go to school, unlike most kids here, but she can't.  Her hands are tied to a bad situation she can't get out of because of her mom.  It's an endless cycle and there isn't much here to break the cycle.  Our hearts break for her but she's the one who will make us do whatever it takes to get her out of that house and into a school so she can have a better life.  We just haven't figured out how to do that yet.  Please pray for us for wisdom and pray for Vanessa.