Matthew

Mati is a very cheerful and energetic boy. He has an extraordinary talent, which is also his passion – he can draw beautifully. His early childhood, however, was not so optimistic, because already in the sixth month of his life he was taken from his biological mother and placed in emergency care. When he was 18 months old, fate smiled at him and was adopted along with his 3-month-old brother Kuba. However, this did not make the disease he was suffering from disappear, as it later turned out. The boy suffers from Partial Alcoholic Fetal Syndrome (pFAS), which was caused by his mother’s alcohol consumption while she was pregnant. This illness significantly impedes Mateusz’s normal life, because he often forgets about many things, loses his sense of time so much that when it get dark he realize that he was supposed to go home right after school, he has considerable inclinations to addictions and taking risky behaviors, which often threaten the life of himself, but also people in his surroundings. Mateusz has a lot of difficulties related to independence, and he is now 13 years old – and these are just some of his problems. What’s more, Mateusz is aware that in many aspects he is weaker than his peers and this also causes him to develop emotional problems, low self-esteem and a sense of helplessness. Despite this, even when there are moments of weakness, Mateusz does not give up and fights for himself, smiles and tries in his own way to overcome all obstacles that he faces every day. Any help that each of us can offer him (whether it’s financial support for therapy or simply giving him our attention, kindness and a smile) is an invaluable value and a step towards a better life for Mateusz.