Oldport Homes
THE FAMILY  
Ask Ken and Doreen Silva of Warwick, RI about the most important thing in their lives. Without missing a beat, Ken who is a garbage truck driver for the City of Warwick, and Doreen, a stay at home mom and advocate for fostering and open adoption, will say it is the health and welfare of their five children and their two foster children. Over the last six years the Silva’s, in addition to raising their two biological children, have fostered thirteen children and adopted three of those children. All of the children have special needs.

Raising children is never easy under the best of circumstances and the challenges the Silva’s face are compounded on a daily basis by the health problems linked to each of their children. Son Kenny is 14 and was diagnosed with high functioning autism, OCD and sensory integration disorder. Despite these issues he plays on a special-education baseball team with his brother Mathew and is a loyal New England sports fan. He has also inherited a love of Nascar from his Dad, Ken.


The Silva Family & Member's of the
Oldport Homes Team

Photo Credit: Darcie Di Saia
Photo Editor/Photographer, Warwick Beacon

Mathew, 11, has also been diagnosed with a milder form of autism, sensory integration disorder, and dyslexia. He loves history, is learning to play the violin and asked his Mom, Doreen, who home schools all of the children if they could learn Chinese this year as part of their curriculum. He also has a newspaper delivery route which he has learned to manage all by himself. Of late he has been growing his hair long and wants to donate it to Locks of Love.

When the Silva’s began fostering children they say that they decided to make it their mission to find a home for every abandoned child without a home in the Rhode Island foster care system. Mom, Doreen says, “We see the needs of these children and cannot say we cannot help. It is so important to us to know we are doing everything we can to help. Children don’t usually have a voice so they need someone to give them that.” Their 3 adopted children, Isaiah, 6, Jayedin, 5 and Sammy, 2 all have physical and cognitive issues ranging from allergies and asthma to learning disabilities. The family also has two other foster children in their care right now.

This past September the Silva’s were dealt a huge blow, when, following the children’s physical examinations, that learned that they all had high levels of lead in their systems. The Rhode Island Health Department issued letters to the Silva’s describing the dangers of lead to their children and informed them that they may take the foster children out of the home if they do not remedy the problem.

Upon learning of these dangerous levels of lead, the Silva’s requested an inspection of their home and property and the outcome was devastating. Their home was found to carry dangerous levels of lead in almost every common area of the home -- bathroom, closets, kitchen, in two of the children’s bedrooms, in the basement and in the backyard where the children play. With their limited resources, the Silva’s resurfaced and repainted areas of concern throughout the house but a follow-up inspection indicated that the cosmetic improvements they made did not even begin to resolve the lead problem. The home inspector outlined a long dangerous list of toxic levels throughout the inside and outside of the home and indicated that short of gutting the home and removing tons of contaminated soil from around the home the lead issue would continue to be a health hazard to the entire family.

Ken and Doreen do not have the resources to remedy this frightening situation. They have put all of their financial resources towards raising their children. They have never taken a vacation. And they are extremely concerned that the two foster children in their care, a boy who is 10 months, and a girl who is 6 months old, whom they have had since infancy, will be removed from the only home they have known.

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