MESA, Ariz. — For years, the 65-year-old Mesa woman who goes by the moniker "Mama-Jo" has lived on the streets, suffering from severe addiction to fentanyl. The founder of a Valley non-profit is stepping up to help her, and is encouraging others to do the same through the use of the social media platform Tiktok.
“This is our friend. She is a double amputee due to her usage," Brock Bevell, the founder of Fentanyl Project AZ, said during a now viral video posted in late May. “Unfortunately, she’s trespassed from most locations, can’t get her inside, but we did the best job we could to get her cleaned up.”
The video, which has garnered nearly one million views, shows Mama-Jo slumped over in the parking lot of a Walgreens in Mesa. Bevell does his best to clean her up, but struggles to help the woman who struggles to help herself.
“She's out in the community. She can't use a restroom by herself. She can't clean herself, and so we have all these issues. So we start making phone calls," Bevell said.
He's called Mesa police and fire, but due to warrants for her arrest and her unwillingness to be transported to a hospital, nobody will take her in. Bevell's even contacted Arizona Senators to ask what can be done for a member of the Mesa community whose been seemingly forgotten.
“The frustrating part is, we live in Arizona. We're in a community where just got these opiate grants, huge amount of money coming in. And the question is, what's happening? How come we can't get a young lady, 65 years old, double amputee, how come we can't get her that next level of care," Bevell questioned.
In a video posted three weeks later to his Tiktok account, Bevell chatted with Mama-Jo, who explained that she used to be a successful veterinarian and wasn't living on the streets. That was until she became beholden to the dangerous drug of fentanyl.
“Lost my home, lost my wife and now I’m alone. I’m alone. And when I smoke the blue, I’m not alone no more. It’s me and the blue," Mama-Jo said in the video.
Bevell has looked past her current condition, meeting her where she is, on the streets of Mesa, to offer a helping hand. He hopes others will join him in finding her a permanent path into recovery.
“I know that we're working with some edges here that that are difficult, but I don't know. I would love for someone to see this and reach out to us and say, hey, this is what we can do next," Bevell said.
To help, you can find the Fentanyl Project AZ Instagram account here, and their Tiktok page here.
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