Parenting Path s
Cros s
Single Mothers Share
Importance of Community
BY SASHA ROGELBERG
Yana Bailey (left)
with her
daughter, Lauren,
and son, Lee.

WashingtonFAMILY.com 15
PABLO RAYA
I t may take a village to raise
a child, but every village
looks diff erent.

For single mothers Yana Bailey and
Lonyetta Yamoah-Manuh, their village was, in
part, each other.

Bailey met Yamoah-Manuh about 10 years ago at
church, when Bailey was tabling for Lupus awareness. At
the time, both women were working single mothers with
young daughters and connected over their similarities.

Soon, Yamoah-Manuh, a 42-year-old mother in
Fredericksburg, would bring her daughter, Lauren, now
17, over to Bailey’s to play with Ayana, now 19, every week-
end. The daughters and mothers became fast friends.

“It’s like having a second sister, a second mom, that
extended family,” Yamoah-Manuh says. “It’s somebody