Aidpage

"Dekiya Davis faces daunting challenges. She has cerebral palsy, she is partially paralyzed, and she is blind in one eye. She also suffers from schizoaffective disorder, which, through medication and therapy, she has under control. Her husband, Shawn Stewart, recently suffered a stroke. And Dekiya has another formidable responsibility: motherhood. Her ailments make it exceptionally difficult for her to care for her two young sons, Shawn Jr., 15 months, and Christopher, who is only a few weeks old. (Dekiya also has a 12-year-old daughter, Niema, who lives with her father’s mother.)

The Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service, one of the seven charities supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, helps parents like Dekiya care for their children and keep them from winding up in foster care. Five days a week, Yamile Angulo, who is a mother herself, comes to Dekiya’s home to prepare meals, bathe the children and take Shawn Jr. to day care.

Dekiya also receives public assistance and Social Security, but she could not afford supplies for the new baby, so the Brooklyn Bureau used Neediest Cases money to buy a crib, a stroller and clothing for Christopher."

See full article here...

Links to aid organizations in the New York area mentioned in the article:

• Children’s Aid Society
• Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York
• Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens
• Community Service Society of New York
• Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
• UJA-Federation of New York

From today's New York Times editorial:

"The weather is turning cold, and home heating fuel is increasingly unaffordable. The Energy Department recently reported that households should expect to pay 48 percent more this year for natural gas, on average, and nearly a third more for oil and propane - assuming a "normal" winter and no further supply disruptions like Katrina.

In and of themselves, those increases will be too much for an estimated seven million low-income Americans, including old people, disabled people and families with children. On top of gasoline prices that are already high and wages that are stagnating, the rising cost of heating fuel is bound to be devastating.

Yet Congress is balking at approving an additional $3 billion in federal heating subsidies that would help meet the coming need...

That's unacceptable... Vulnerable people need to keep the heat on to keep from getting sick, or worse... Heating aid for the needy is also a matter of common decency, which ordinary Americans are entirely capable of, though not, so far, their elected leaders."

See full article (free registration required)...