Americans Helping Americans Doubles Our Efforts Amidst the Coronavirus

March 31, 2020

Americans Helping Americans Doubles Our Efforts Amidst the Coronavirus

March 31, 2020

At Americans Helping Americans, our partners throughout Appalachia strive to project what the most pressing needs will be for those most in need in their communities in terms of food, basic needs, education and more, for the year ahead. 

 

But no one could have anticipated the hardships that would be imposed on those families and seniors already struggling to get by in these times of the coronavirus pandemic. 

 Our grassroots partners have limited means, few staff, and we’re already stretched to their limits in operating their programs, and we understand that even the best-laid plans can go awry. 

 

Within the past week, we have been hearing from many of them as they have been forced to cancel well-established programs for the foreseeable future as other dire needs have emerged. 

 

In these extraordinary times, they must adapt, and we are giving them the flexibility to use their grant funding to adjust the services they offer to put these resources to best use. 

 

For our partner in Beattyville, Kentucky, Cumberland Mountain Outreach, which has for many years operated a popular free summer camp for children and youth, the tough, but necessary, decision to cancel camp this summer had to be made. 

 

Among the benefits of the summer camp program for the older youth is its Teens in a Leadership program in which the youth who had attended the camp for several years as children are put into mentorship roles providing the younger children a positive role model to look up to. 

 

Instead, this year, these promising teens will be contributing to their community through service projects, such as delivering food boxes door-to-door to senior citizens and the disabled this summer. 

 

 When a partner inquired as to whether we had much-in-demand face masks, it turned out that we had a few thousand on hand which we could provide them. 

AHA COVID19 RESPONSE MASKS

 While non-perishable food boxes will always be in demand, we are also receiving numerous requests from our partners for soap and other personal hygiene items, as well as disposable diapers.  So, we have adjusted our focus as well and will soon be shipping thousands of bars of soap, diapers and other items in the knowledge that sadly, this is likely just the beginning of a long, difficult summer. 

 

None of what we do, and a lot of what our partners do, would be possible without the generosity of Americans Helping Americans whose support we, and our partners and their clients, rely on month after month, year after year. 

 

These are uncharted waters, but with your help, we are helping thousands of our fellow Americans steer their way through the storm and make it the calmer waters we have faith are coming in the months to follow. 

Related Blogs

Repairing and Rebuilding Homes, and Lives

Repairing and Rebuilding Homes, and Lives

Rebuilding Homes and Lives in the Heart of Appalachia In rural Appalachia, the arrival of spring is a spectacle of nature's revival, with early bloomers and budding trees painting the landscape in vibrant colors. Yet, beyond nature's beauty, spring marks a season of...

Want2Work students are winning awards and landing jobs!

Want2Work students are winning awards and landing jobs!

Through the Americans Helping Americans® Want2Work initiative, our partners – the Lee County and the Estill County Area Technology Centers (ATC), both located in Kentucky, and the Lee County Career and Technical Center (CTC) in Virginia – are helping to ensure that...

Our Gardening Programs Sprouts more than Food

Our Gardening Programs Sprouts more than Food

Throughout Appalachia, children and families go hungry every day due to food insecurity issues, primarily because their limited financial resources mean that they are faced every month with the difficult decision of whether to pay their rent, utilities, or other...