Please watch this page, and visit it periodically to see what unfolds. We are planning to tell the world the story of WSP Inc., how we came about and what we have been doing throughout the years.
PLEASE BEGIN READING THE WSP INC. STORY. IT IS A DEVELOPING STORY SO PLEASE COME BACK PERIODICALLY TO READ MORE!!!
I think it is time to tell the story of WSP Organization, Women as Single Parents Inc., at least as much as time will allow me to right now. It’s a story that needs to be told and a story that needs to be heard. It is a story of determination, struggle and victory. It is a story of a journey; a journey without an end in sight!
As many of you know on Friday March 8, 2013 our organization celebrated its 10TH anniversary, “YEAH WE ACTUALLY MADE IT TO THIS MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY, WITH ALL THANKS TO CREATOR-GOD!!!”
WELL, HERE WE GO!
It was January, 1995, and because of serious differences in opinion concerning my husband’s psychological health challenges, and after almost 21 years of marriage, I was suddenly left to take care of two disabled daughters and a dying mother who had come from Florida to California seeking treatment for multiple heart diseases. I found that she was far worse than imagined! One day I took her to the Social Security Office in Redlands, California—where I lived at the time—to get her benefits sorted out, and just before they called her name she suffered a heart attack! This happened within less than two weeks of her coming to California! The ambulance came to take her and I requested that they take her to Loma Linda University Medical Center, in Loma Linda, California, (which was three hospitals away), since this was where she always wanted to go hoping to get the help she so desperately needed, but by the time she was able to make it there it was too late! No, she didn’t die at the hospital but the doctors could not do anything for her. They told her that her heart had miraculously made its own bypass several times and that by rights she should have passed away many times before! She was a miracle lady for sure!
Since nothing more could be done for my mother, and after I took her to an Alternative Medical doctor who put her on a course of chelation therapy, my father came to take her back to Florida, and promised she would have the rest of the therapy there. My mother passed in April 1999, still living about five years longer, defying all odds! But, before she left California, she wanted to make sure I was able to open a bank account since I was unable to open an account after my husband closed the accounts in disarray!!! I wheeled my mother to the bank and I asked to speak to the bank manager. It so happened that he was available and by the stroke of his pen he changed my banking history to a positive one!!!
I had bought a brand new car in 1994 and now, I stood to lose it and everything else. My youngest daughter was dying and I didn’t even know it! This serious piece of news was shared with me by a Pediatric Specialist in May of 1995! This nightmare took upwards of the next 13 years to unfold! One night I stood beside her hospital bed praying all throughout the night for I didn't know whether she would live to see the morning light! I am happy to say that today she is a beautiful married adult, married to a wonderful, loving Christian gentleman, she's happy to be alive and encouraging others to feel the same about life.
Before 1995 ended I had decided to refuse to become just another negative divorce statistic, and that I wanted instead, to make a difference in society. I told the Lord this and I believe His response was, " GET WRITING!" So I began to develop a program that would help single mothers to succeed by obtaining the help and support they needed at that particular time in their lives. I was now a separated single mother who happened to be a business woman wanting and needing to start a business, but I found that help was practically non-existent! I found that no matter how gifted and talented a woman was once she became a single mother she was at a disadvantage simply because she was a single mother!!! I began to do research and constantly came upon some unbelievable discoveries and facts about single motherhood and how single mothers were viewed by just about everyone in society! By the time I had finished writing a program especially for single mothers, a community organization in the Redlands area was very interested in the unique concept of the program and wanted to implement it, but I declined and said that I would develop it myself.
You see, all community organizations I had come across only made programs and assistance available to low income and poor single mothers. In my research I had discovered that the single mothers who fell through the cracks in society were not the poor ones or the ones on government aid but those single mothers who were actually either working single mothers or business women! THESE were the single mothers who really needed support; THESE were the mothers who OTHER people in society relied upon, including churches. I found that churches were notorious for expecting these mother to DO so much and they were expected to support the church they were a member of in so many ways, yet no one ever thought to help these women or to ask them whether they needed help or not! I wanted to change this abuse and so I was inspired to begin introducing the program to the churches first.
I also found that mothers who were Christians were hard to cater to, even though they were the ones who really needed the support our organization had to offer. Single mothers of the world gladly reached out to our organization and had no problem asking for help, but Christian single mothers did. Why was this, I asked myself? Here is the answer. There was a stigma among Christian single mothers about being a single mother because so much emphasis was on being a married woman, a family woman. Single mothers are looked down upon, and sometimes pitied and so asking for help or looking needy was a shameful thing, so no one asked single mothers if they needed help and she wouldn't dare ask for help to feel even more vulnerable than she already felt!!!
While I was writing the program and perfecting it, my life seemed to be falling apart! I had gone from having access to over $100,000 a year to $0 income while trying to sort myself out financially, because my husband closed the bank accounts and left me and our daughters with nothing to live on, and I went from no credit--because I was used to buying what I wanted with cash--to bad credit, because of unknown debts my husband had! It goes to show that despite having a degree or education, sometimes when a woman becomes a single mother or IS becoming a single mother her finances can grow wings, and especially when she was unable to work prior, due to being a caregiver to sick or ailing children or elderly, sick parents, as it was in my case.
Myself and my daughters ended up having to leave our home and was staying at a friend's house for a short while, because even though I qualified for child support and alimony income, my husband left the country a few months after choosing to leave home instead of staying and taking care of his mental health and both the Social Services Department and the Child Support Office thought I was receiving income from one of the offices so I ended up with no income at all!!! One day there was a knock on the door, my car was being repossessed! Then after that we ended up in a shelter where new families thought "I" was the manager of the shelter program! While in the shelter, I decided to set up my computer and continue to write and perfect the single mothers' program I had already written. I was determined to perfect it, finish it and then look for a church that would adopt the program.
I can remember that while on the Food-stamp Program through Social Services I would save the change that the stores were allowed to give back to the recipients on the program and I called this money the "Hagar Foundation", and the "Penny Bank"! Out of these funds I was able to help other single mothers--even less fortunate than myself--with bus fare, diapers for their babies, baby formula, and clothing! I was EXTREMELY frugal with the change because even though I was a business woman with multimillion dollar product ideas I learned that no matter how poor I was at the time, God still required me to share what I had with others and I did, and was VERY happy to do so too! I looked forward to that time when I could actually open a bank account for my organization, and set up funding foundations but that would be some time in the future.
In 2007, one of our single mother members who was among the six mothers to be in the very first WSP-NG group formed upon launching the program, felt inspired to call me to donate funds to get our organization Incorporated! So In May, 2007 our WSP Organization become WOMEN AS SINGLE PARENTS INCORPORATED!!! It was a very exciting time. We were finally abled to open our very first bank account with Bank of America. However, because we had not yet obtained our 501c3, Bank of America told us we couldn't open a Business Account unless we had thousands of dollars which we didn't have as yet!
Another single mother, whom I had never met, offered to donate funds so that we could obtain our 501c3. Danielle T. Antonio-Klassen, also donated funds for this purpose!
After receiving this money I decided to open a bank account with Bank of America, but they wouldn't allow me to open a Business Account without our nonprofit status and EIN number, so the account was opened in my name. When we did finally obtain our 501c3 and EIN number we opened our official Business Bank Account with Union Bank! It was a most exciting time for our organization.
In 2009 we also started featuring single mothers who were bold enough to tell their story for the world to know about their struggles and victories, and where they were today!!! This new feature was titled: CELEBRITY SINGLE MOM OF THE MONTH! Anita Thurman was our very first to tell her story and it was a fabulous story, with many people loving it! Then there was the story of Claudette Barrett. Two great stories of mothers who were bold enough to tell all!!! These ladies continue to move forward in their lives today and we are very proud of them.
WOMEN AS SINGLE PARENTS INC. TODAY!
Today Women as Single Parents Inc. has survived where many companies have faded away!!! What has been our sustaining power? None other than our Savior Jesus Christ!!! His love for single mothers and their children has sustained us and gotten us through many a dire straits!
Yes, today we have been in business for 21 years, have helped many single mothers to succeed and have lots more to our story which is definitely worth telling because many people need to be encouraged by our struggles and how we got over and how and why we have survived. Our story will be continued. Come back after a while. In the meantime be encouraged, and believe that through the help and mighty arm of Creator-God your situation WILL improve, don't just believe, but believe in the Lord of the Universe Who created you. He is the one Who loves you with a love that will NEVER, EVER let you go, and He IS to be trusted with your future so put your trust in Him today and contact us to be encouraged.
TO BE CONTINUED...
© 2013-2024 for WSP Inc. By Rosita P. Antonio
Donate today to our great cause!!!