Its been a wild week in NYC. Am running out to go see how I can lend a hand in Gowanus, one of many neighborhoods in Brooklyn where they still don't have power and no government assistance in sight.
In the meantime - I wanted to share with my community far and wide ways YOU can help the recovery effort! My bestie Basha wrote this great, comprehensive email to her family last night, giving a picture of the situation here with some suggestions of where and how to send money.
Here is a list of places (and I'm sure there are more, I am not pretending I can be comprehensive right now!) and below is the full email. Mad props to Basha for taking the time to write this all out.
- First of all, stay updated by following Occupy Sandy on Facebook
- CAAAV - one of the first responders/organizers to Sandy's devastation - a long-standing community organization in Chinatown, CAAAV has been an incredible, grassroots, neighborhood-based, hub for hurricane relief.
- GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side) - another great neighborhood community organization doing on the ground support in their community
- El Puente - organizing relief work in the Rockaways and on Staten Island - two of the hardest hit places that are incredibly under-resourced right now.
- Red Hook Initiative - working in Brooklyn's Red Hook, which was flooded Monday - they've been super organized
- North Star's Grassroots Hurricane Relief Fund - North Star is a social justice foundation in New York that supports grassroots organizations and are collecting funds for quick turn-around support of communities across NYC
- INDIVIDUALS!! A lot of this relief work has been done by individual people going out and buying tons of supplies and delivering to various distribution points or going door-to-door. I know a few folks who are looking for more funds to be able to do another round of supply-shopping - please be in touch with me directly so I can hook you up.
- NEW! Ali Forney Center Hurricane Sandy Relief - Ali Forney Center provides housing for LGBTQ youth around the city. Their drop-in center in Chelsea was destroyed.
Hey family!
First off, as you know, I'm safe and
sound in Brooklyn. I luckily never lost power, cell phone service, or
experienced any flooding in Crown Heights. But I wanted to give you guys
an update about what's happening in New York, especially to point you
to places to send monetary donations, (aka money!), if you are
interested in donating.
I'm sure you've been following the news on the
damage from the storm, but I can confirm that things are still really
bad in a lot of New York and New Jersey; in some places, it's been
devastating. Moreover, there is not a lot of government or institutional
support coming in.
You probably have seen that parts of Manhattan,
Queens, Brooklyn, and a lot of Staten Island still don't have power, (I
think parts of Jersey too), and some places are still partially flooded.
Even the Lower East Side only got it's power back this afternoon. It
seems that the national Gaurd will be bringing gas to the area soon, but
as of now, most stations are out and closed, and people have been
syphoning gas from parked and stranded cars in order to get to work,
leave their damaged homes, check on their families, and get to volunteer
sites. My friends who were able to make it into the city confirmed that
grassroots organizations like CAAV and GOLES, along with churches and
residents, were doing the ONLY organized relief in Chinatown and on the
LES... there have been no FEMA trucks or personnel in site. For example,
folks from the five boroughs biked, walked, and bussed into Chinatown
to deliver supplies to elderly folks in 13 floor walkup apartments with
no elevator service and no way to leave their apartments. The same lack
of government aid goes for parts of Queens devastated by the storm, such
as Breezy Point, which literally burned down, and Staten Island, (19 bodies found so far, many pulled out of the water... and watch this video),
which is largely unrecognizable and has seen no FEMA support as of yet.
Nursing homes and areas that are destroyed have evacuated people to
makeshift shelters at schools, churches, and large city buildings, but
in many cases they are largely being manned by volunteers, and seem to
be very donation-based. This is not to say that the government has done
nothing, but that many places have seen literally no support, not even a
vehicle or representative.
There has been some news on the lack of government and institutional support, such as this Huffington Post piece,
but I haven't had access to a TV, (not because I don't have power, but
because I don't own a TV), so I'm not sure what's being reported. What I
know is that a LOT of the aid is coming from volunteers, and that it's a
diffuse on the ground effort, which means it might not be well
publicized. A few websites like Occupy Sandy Relief, and Brokelyn,
are consolidating information on where to volunteer and where to give
donations, but by in large, people don't even know how many people have
been displaced, or that thousands of people are in makeshift shelters at
public schools and churches, and how badly they need aid.
I don't think this is a remotely comprehensive
summary of the damage done by the storm, or the relief efforts
happening. I mean to convey, first, that the damage is incomprehensibly
vast, second, that incredibly high numbers of residents have been
thus-far abandoned by the government, and third, that there is a dynamic
network of aid happening in the city, being lead by non profits,
religious organizations, and individuals.
In moments of mass-disasters, people from far away,
or anyone with the financial resources, donate money to disaster relief
funds. It's one of the best ways to get survivors safe, and equip them
with necessities and resources when their lives have been overhauled.
It's great to donate to organizations like the Red Cross, because they
have institutional-level resources and access. But it can be complicated
to donate to organizations like Red Cross and Salvation Army, both
because we don't always feel aligned with their ideology (pro-life,
anti-gay, etc), and because we don't actually know to where and to whom
our donations are going. If you guys are thinking of donating to aid
efforts, I urge you to choose a recipient that is on the ground working
with the needs of the people most effected. This means not necessarily
donating so a group like the Red Cross, (although they claim they have provided a lot of hurricane relief in
the northeast this week, and they do legitimately provide
institutional-scale services, which are invaluable), and instead giving
it to those places that are working tirelessly without support.
If you want to donate, I have a few resources on
hand, (gathered with the help of Jessie Spector), and can try to come up
with more.
- CAAAV - one of the first responders/organizers to Sandy's devastation - a long-standing community organization in Chinatown, CAAAV has been an incredible, grassroots, neighborhood-based, hub for hurricane relief.
- GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side) - another great neighborhood community organization doing on the ground support in their community
- El Puente - organizing relief work in the Rockaways and on Staten Island - two of the hardest hit places that are incredibly under-resourced right now.
- Red Hook Initiative - working in Brooklyn's Red Hook, which was flooded Monday - they've been super organized
- North Star's Grassroots Hurricane Relief Fund - North Star is a social justice foundation in New York that supports grassroots organizations and are collecting funds for quick turn-around support of communities across NYC
- INDIVIDUALS!! A lot of this relief work has been done by individual people going out and buying tons of supplies and delivering to various distribution points or going door-to-door. I know a few folks who are looking for more funds to be able to do another round of supply-shopping - please be in touch with me directly so I can hook you up.
I'd also encourage you to forward that list, or come up with your
own, to send to colleges, friends, and family. And if you donate, or see
a place that you want to promote, put it on your facebook wall - It has
been a major source of information this week, even to people in New
York, who can't necessarily access the damage happening 3 miles away.
Finally, if you have anything to donate, such as
coats, blankets, underpants, clothing, shoes, children's books, toys,
etc, I think a lot of places are taking donations, and I can' try to
find out more!
I've never sent out a fundraising or solicitation
email and don't really know how to write one, but I hope this was
informational and helpful, and not too pushy. And I hope that your
friends, family, and all of your people are safe after the storm.
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment