Freddie Diaz grew up in abject poverty in Mexico, one of seven children in a family of nine barely getting by in a one-room shack.
Every day, he walked five miles to school hungry, he never owned more than two pairs of pants, and at the age of 8 he began pumping gas for 50 cents a day - just so he could help keep his family afloat.
"I was," he says, "so sick of being poor. It was sickening poor."
Yearning for a better life, he crossed the border into California at age 16 to look for migrant farm work and found it. But the conditions were less than ideal. Most of his co-workers were 50 or older, he shared living quarters with up to 60 people at a time, and the work was long and hard.
It didn't take him long to realize that he didn't want to work the fields the rest of his life, so he moved to Fort Wayne to seek other opportunities. At first, it was still farm work that sustained him, this time on a 200-acre spread near Harlan. But eventually he became a legal resident, got married, began raising a family and took a maintenance job at a local hospital.
His life was balanced and fruitful - except for one thing. Although he could speak English, he had difficulty reading it.
And so, when his four-year-old daughter, Lilia, started asking him to read "Green Eggs and Ham" to her, he knew he had to do something. He knew he had to learn to read.
He sought assistance from The Literacy Alliance, a United Way agency partner, and with the help of the people there, he began a journey that has taken Diaz, 40, to an eighth-grade reading level.
"Literally," he says, "I didn't know anything. Now at least I know how to read - a little bit how to write."
His goal, he says, is to earn his GED through the Alliance - so he can continue his quest to be a good father to his children, so he can ultimately help them with their homework.
"I don't want my kids to end up like me," he says. "I decided I wanted to go to school so I could help them."