Hooked on phonics

At work for the past week or so I have been assigned to help a girl named Cindy during "study time". Cindy lives in the home for girls behind the school and is supposed to be in the 6th grade. However, due to unfortunate circumstances she was in and out of school for the duration of her elementary education, and was actually living on the streets of Singapore right before she came to live at the home. This being said, she is working out of a 1st grade workbook. Her work consists of filling in the missing words of very basic sentences. Everyday when I would check her work all of the answers would be wrong, every single one of them. I thought she was going through the assigned pages and marking whatever answer she felt like in order to finish her work so she could go play outside sooner. I was getting on to her late last week about rushing through the work and decided to make her read the sentences out loud so we could fix her mistakes together. Once she started reading it all made sense, she can't read. If the words were not "and", "the" or "she", she would stare at the page blankly, then look up at me, ashamed, and claim "she didn't know". My heart ached for her. She is almost 12 years old, and literally cannot do 1st grade work. Since I learned of her inability to read I have been trying to teach her, however it is much easier said then done. I don't even remember learning to read, I feel like I have always been able to do it. The words just sound "right" to me, but that logic does not work when you are teaching someone how to read. Today we came across the word "food", and I was fully expecting her to know it, however she shrugged her shoulders and looked up at me for help. I thought to myself that this was one of the most common words we use, and even though she is not reading books she should have at least picked up the meaning of this word in the cafeteria or something, right?  I am literally starting from scratch with this girl, and am so under qualified for this role. Sitting there with her today, I had another one of my "wow I am so lucky moments", for I have been reading since I was a little girl, in fact, my mom was reading to me before I could even talk. Today, I am thankful for the little things, like the fact that my parents were able to provide me with a bookshelf full of books. I have always loved reading, and I am sad that Cindy might not ever get to experience what it feels like to be caught up in a "page turner". More than that though, being able to read is essential to life, from following a map, to filling out a job application, my hope for her is that she is able to overcome this obstacle before it truly cripples her. I only have about two weeks left here, but I intend to use that time to help her reading skills in whatever way I can.