The Issue:
On Saturday, August 7th, 2021 families living in two Omaha area apartment buildings experienced devastating flooding. Many families lost most of their belongings, including non replaceable items such as family pictures, mementos and certificates. Many mattresses, furniture, electronic devices, clothing, bedding, pillows and food were destroyed. All households in both buildings came to America with refugee status and were working on getting established in this country. WOWT Channel 6 did a news story about the families that can be watched here. A video taken by one of the family members shows the gravity of the flooding:
The Solution:
As a community, we can support these families by helping them recover the items they lost. There are three ways to do this:
(1) Donate funds that will be used to purchase items for the families
(2) Donate items either via the designated Amazon list or in person at our Community Donation Center
(3) Sponsor a family via your church/religious organization/community group/business.
Option One: Donate Funds
Option Two: Donate Items
We have created two lists per family. One is an Amazon list, where things will be shipped directly to our office. The other list is our “drop off in person list,” for people who would like to shop for items and drop them off at our Community Donation Center. Once the families are able to move back into their apartments, we will deliver their items. Items that are purchased on Amazon will be updated on the “drop off in person list” and vice versa. If you purchase items from Amazon, make sure to forward your order email to: info@rdomaha.org so that we can properly thank you (Amazon doesn’t share who donated what with us). THANK YOU for all of your incredible support!
If you drop off items at our Community Donation Center, please let the person who is collecting the donations know that your items are for the Somali Flood Relief Families. To gain extra points, labeling items with the family number (Family #1, #2, #3) on donated items would be super helpful!
- Family #1 (2 adults, 6 kids)
- Family #2 (1 adult, 2 kids) **Fully Sponsored!!**
- Family #3 (2 adults, 4 kids)
- Family #4 (4 adults) **All items purchased!**
- Family #5 (1 disabled adult man) **All items purchased!**
- Family #6 (1 adult, 1 kid) **Fully Sponsored!!**
Option Three: Sponsor A Family
Are you part of a church, religious organization, community group or some other organization that would like to sponsor one of these families? Sponsorship would mean that your group collects all the items on the list and then brings them to the family (once their apartment is ready to be moved into…. probably mid-September 2021). If you are interested in sponsorship, please fill out this form and we will be in touch with you shortly!
