Kariah has reached her fundraising goal on HandUp!

About me.

I’m from Detroit, MI and lived there my whole life. I became pregnant at the young age of 18, but I knew I would be able to raise a child. I was wrong! I was at my lowest; depressed and suicidal, because of the physical and mental thing my Mom did to me while I was pregnant. At 4 months pregnant I was given the option by my mother to have an abortion or leave her house. I chose to leave and I went to a teen mom shelter for two years. At the age of 20 I signed my first lease for an apartment I was eligible for through the shelter I stayed at. I’ve worked a few factory warehouse jobs and also a few retail jobs to maintain bills. In 2014 my apartment became infested with RATS! They ran me and my baby out of our home. When we had nowhere to go a friend of mine let us move in with her.

My backstory.

After a few months of being in my friends house I began to attend a church down the street from us. As my daughter and I were walking home from church a man approached me asking me to date him. I denied him nicely and kept walking home with my baby. He then grabbed my arm and began to slap and beat me in front of my baby. I broke loose and grabbed my baby and ran home. He followed me catching up to me in a field and dragged me into a building. I yelled for my daughter to go home and get my friend. Before she made it home, I was able to break free by throwing dirt in his face. I caught up with my daughter and ran to a waste management site to call the police. He was arrested two days later and is now in jail for 5 years. Soon after that bad storm ended, another one began! As I was coming home from volunteering at the soup kitchen, I saw my daughter on the front porch crying. This was when I found out she had been molested. I was furious and almost tried to murder her molester. I then moved in with my grandmother, but was told I couldn’t stay there forever. I was calling shelters for months, but not many were available. I was finally able to get into SOS.

My goals, moving forward.

I’m now trying to get back on my own, but I haven’t been able to get a good job due to my baby needing schooling. My lifelong goal is to start a catering business and be my own boss. I can hire my friends and low income people to work with and for me. I’m working to get there by coming to SOS to get a little housing help and with school for my baby and employment.

Other things I'd like to share about myself.

Being able to play, hold, hug, and just be with my baby makes me happy. Also cooking! My proudest moment was still being able to graduate high school while raising a 4 month old baby.