ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Financial decision-making can be difficult for any family, but it can have an additional impact on single-income households. That’s why the Chavez household enjoys a good board game for family bonding.

“There’s always something going on here,” Diana Chavez laughed.

She’s a mom of two children. Lily is 5 and Isaiah is 15. Her oldest lives with high-functioning autism and Keratoconus, which is a disease that could take his vision.

What You Need To Know

  • Messiah Hands Foundation is a new not-for-profit that provides financial relief for single mothers with children with disabilities

  • Fifi Collier is a single mother to two children with disabilities, and she named her organization after her third child, Messiah, who passed away more than 10 years ago from his own disability

  • Diana Chavez is a single mother of two, her oldest has autism and Keratoconus, a disease that could take his vision

  • Insurance doesn't cover the required glasses and medication he needs to fight the disease, and when he cahnges medication he's been known to run away or act recklessly as a reaction

  • Collier has been a resource for mothers, like Chavez, to prevent burn out, provide support, and give monetaray gifts collected through donations 

“A lot of tears," Chavez said. "This came, I cried. It’s hard getting the medicine. It really is."

Being a single mom with a child with disabilities has been difficult for her. Everyday household tasks have become more difficult, and financing their simple lifestyle has become more expensive.

“The insurance is really hard," Chavez said. "And Medicaid, KC is a disease that you go blind. Medicaid will not cover it. They won’t cover the contacts he needs. They won’t cover two glasses that he needs. He can’t see right. The glasses, fitted contacts that cost like $1,200. Medicaid wasn’t paying for it."

She adds that when her son changes medication, he’s been known to react.

“He does have his other insurance, but it doesn’t do the right medicine," she said. "And when you don’t do the right medicine, then we get hospital visits and running away and ambulance and you got to be careful on everything."

It’s a struggle that’s kept the single mom out of work so that she can keep her eyes and ears on her children every hour of every day.

“We need consistent, you know, routines. And when I go to work, it changes the routine, and we get off balance and then we start trying to use gas or running away and then end up in the doctors,” Chavez explained. “It’s hard because when you’re at work, you want to focus on your job, and you can’t focus on your job when you’re thinking that you forgot to turn off the gas or is the house going to burn down or will somebody watch your child the way you’re supposed to?”

“There’s food pantries, you know, instead of spending money on extra food, you can go to the food pantry and then spend the extra $30 or $40 on, you know, medicines,” she added, “You have to, get other people’s help involved and stuff.”

Chavez first heard of the Messiah Hands Foundation online. She called the founder and CEO Fifi Collier for help.

“With the Messiah Hands Foundation, I strive to get these women to a point where they have peace, that they understand that they were chosen to do it," Collier explained. "It’s OK to have a child with a disability. You have the resources you need. You have to take care of yourself."

Collier lost her oldest son, Messiah, to his own disability more than 10 years ago. She’s still a mom to two children with special needs. She’s providing resources to mothers like her.

“What we do is we give them a monetary gift to just to let them know that they are loved, that they are not alone. And we do care for them. And we do appreciate them for being a supermom, and taking care of the disabled child," Collier said. "It’s hard. It’s hard to do that, let alone even if you don’t have a child with a disability. Just being a single mother with a child, period is hard."

Her not-for-profit collects donations to give to single moms as grants to prevent burnout and provide relief for families like the Chavez family.

“We can use it for glasses or copayments or medicine to make our lives happier for that month," Chavez smiled.