Families in Need
During the chaos that ensued as the world started to close borders, Operation Family Freedom had several different families reach out for dire emergency help. They were all in a very bad way. Desperate for any kind of help, and extremely grateful for the help that was provided. Just as a point of clarification, many of these families are in situations that church and public resources are not easily or readily available or even accessible, and most of these people can’t turn to family and friends because they are all in similar situations. Operation Family Freedom truly has been a last resort for them, and we are grateful to be able to help where we can.
One family that had recently fled Venezuela to escape the extreme poverty and hunger, had been trying to get established in Argentina and was already behind on rent. Because of some of the extreme xenophobia they had a difficult time obtaining employment and were facing eviction. When the Virus started to shut things down they were already having to ration meals so the kids could eat. Given the state of affairs at the time, The board of trustees reviewed the communications with this family and decided that they were legitimate and desperate needs.
We were able to get a small amount of cash to the one family to push the eviction off a little, The family was still behind, but they were able to buy some time and get some food to make it a few weeks if needed.
We experienced extensive challenges in getting financial resources to the other families that had migrated to other countries. We attempted to send several families some resources via Western Union, but the storefronts started shutting down and we eventually had to cancel those exchanges. We managed to find some other avenues to assist the families, but the banks still have tied up several hundred dollars because they were not operating at full compacity. Several weeks have passed and the challenges presented by COVID-19, here and abroad, were immense at times, but eventually, we were able to help all of the families that reached out to us.
Operation Family Freedom was also able to contribute to some efforts made by another Non-Profit organization that is based out of Venezuela and run by a good friend of Operation Family Freedom, Norka Salinas (The work she does there inside of Venezuela is AMAZING). This is a group Operation Family Freedom has had close ties to and they were desperately trying to come up with a small amount of donations for some medical Xrays for a young Orphan Girl that had been hit by a car. Operation Family Freedom was able to send them a relatively small donation, and she was able to use that to get further medical attention for the Child. Prior to the assistance by Norka Salinas Funlasa they were holding this child’s hip in joint with bedsheets. You have to love socialized medicine…
Dealing with the challenges presented by COVID-19 is overwhelming. There are a lot of families around us here in the United States. Operation Family Freedom is not limited by geography in the families that we are able to help, but we are limited by resources. If you have been blessed during this time and you are looking for opportunities to help other families please consider a donation, as we have far more demand than we have current resources. For those of you that have contributed in the past and continue to contribute when you can, Thank you.
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