Giving Tuesday 2021!
Global Tuesday is celebrated as a time to give back to the charities and organizations around the world doing important work to support the communities who need it most.
Elena’s Light has been working tirelessly to continue to provide health and education services to its clients amidst the context of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
This year, we helped a woman whose two young children suffer from facial disfigurement as a result of severe burn injuries pass her driving permit and license exams. When she struggled to pay for heating and cooling her home, we intervened to ensure that her family lived in the comfort we believe is a fundamental human right. We also purchased toys for her children because, as we also believe, to be a child is a right we must safeguard.
We recently received a call from one of our clients who thanked us for helping her obtain her driver's license, and, by extension, for ensuring that she can take her two disabled children to their doctor's appointments as opposed to relying on a caseworker.
Another one of our clients, a 25-year-old mother of several young children and a student of our ESL program, called to say that she couldn't believe she'd passed her citizenship test. Though she has no other family members in the United States, the passage of her citizenship test announces the belief that our organization was founded upon: this country is for, and made better by, refugees and immigrants.
Our Summer 2020 Child Wellness program invited 40 children. We took this program to our clients' driveways, filling streets silenced by the global pandemic with the sound of laughter, conversation, and music. On two occasions, we celebrated children's birthdays together: afterward, their parents said their children hadn't expected to celebrate their birthdays at all.
But we cannot continue this work without the help of our community. That’s where you come in! We ask that tomorrow on November 30th you donate to Elena’s Light for Giving Tuesday.
You can broaden your impact by sharing our stories with your friends, families, and loved ones over social media (links below)! We need all hands on deck to support refugee women and children in New Haven, in addition to those overseas for whom we hope to gather an abundance of food and health supplies as violence and political unrest continue to displace them. We thank you.