MIAMI (CBSMiami) –Â When Nick Silverio misplaced his beloved associate to a tragic automobile accident in 1999, he knew he needed to hold her reminiscence alive.
“Gloria was a loving person. She loved people, she loved children, and everybody was a friend. She helped the elderly, she helped children. My wife and I were married for 32 years but we didn’t have any children, we had two miscarriages,” he mentioned.
After she died, someday an article on toddler abandonment referred to as out to Silverio and he vowed to assist as many infants and ladies in determined want as he may in Gloria’s reminiscence.
The information expertise skilled set out on a mission and advised the individuals nearest to him what they have been going to do.
“I said, ‘we are going to save babies from being abandoned,’ and that was 330 babies ago,” mentioned Silverio.
He began the Gloria M. Silverio Foundation and rapidly networked to get ‘A Safe Haven for Newborns’ signage created and positioned at hearth stations and hospitals all throughout Florida. The indicators alert new moms to their authorized proper to position a new child within the care of those professionals anonymously with no questions requested.
With assist from state businesses and donations, the indicators have been made by state prisoners and supplied without charge to the services.
“We have a 24/7 hotline in English, Spanish, and Creole. We get about 2000 calls a year roughly. We’ve gotten calls from girls as young as 13 and old as 41. Our goal is to help them keep their baby,” mentioned Silverio.
The hotline has grown into serving to pregnant women and girls together with moms in disaster or want masking all kinds of points.
Some of the calls will stick with him endlessly.
There was one who was seven months pregnant. She was going to be kicked out of the place she was residing and was going to be homeless. Another was a school scholar who referred to as from the dorm.
“She just had the baby in the dorm, we could hear the baby crying,” mentioned Silverio.
The volunteers workers the hotline and direct every caller to the suitable providers accessible, conserving mothers wholesome, united with the infant if attainable, or directing them to adoption.
However, it isn’t an adoption company, it is essential to notice.
“We listen, and we make sure we understand what the needs are and we provide that,” mentioned Silverio.
They have grown into serving to 5,000 pregnant women and girls or moms in disaster or want masking all kinds of points.
Silverio dedicates his life to this trigger, he has even pushed a girl in labor to the hospital himself, and there are the infants – like (*20*) – who endlessly name him ‘Uncle Nick.’
“We met him when he was five days old, he was left with me, we don’t encourage that but that was the circumstance,” he mentioned.
(*20*) is now one of many ambassadors for the group and shares his story as a testomony to its success.
Now in its twentieth 12 months, the nationally acknowledged nonprofit is internet hosting its first-ever digital telethon to lift consciousness and funds.
For extra information, please go to their web site right here.Â