500 together

This week your wonderful donations allowed us to pay £140 orthodontic dental fees for a young woman who is currently living in a Sheffield women’s refuge, after fleeing Domestic Abuse. She has come to the UK on a spouse visa and has since had to escape from the domestic violence she was subjected to. She had orthodontic braces fitted in her country of origin, before her relocation here, but it had been more than five months since she had them checked and she was suffering increasing problems with them e.g., bleeding, constant pain etc. She has been struggling to get a dentist in Sheffield as they are not taking new patients. She was quoted totally unaffordable prices to be seen privately. Eventually with a lot of hard work and persistence, the refuge helped her find a dentist. The cost of the treatment to have her braces removed and be fitted for a retainer was £140, which we have happily paid. At present this young lady has just started receiving Universal Credit- which is l...

We were recently asked to help out a family over the summer school holiday period. They have 2 children under 4 years old and have no access to benefits and no recourse to public funds. The 4 year old has benefited from her entitlement of 15 hours of nursery funding, but this will stop over the summer, and she will start school in September. She has autism and is non verbal. She is also very sensitive to sounds and cannot cope with the noise from the toddler . She becomes so distressed to the point that the parents try to keep them separated as much as possible. This is obviously not always easy or practical. Every morning as soon as the older daughter wakes up mum takes the younger one out of the house and dad gets the older one ready for nursery - as she cannot cope with the noise and get ready at the same time. It is hard to imagine the stress this must put on the family as a whole. The younger one will not be eligible for government paid nursery hours until she is ...

We are pleased to be able to share news of donation number 85. One of our members told us about 2 year old Mohammed, who was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, along with other complex needs including visual and hearing impairment. This means his growth has been delayed until in recent months when he has grown in height. This meant he had totally outgrown his backwards facing car seat - as you can see in the photo his mum shared with us. The wonderful charity SHASBAH ( Sheffield Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus) - who are also members of 500 together - were able to give them a discretionary grant of £300 towards a new car seat, which would cost £520 in total. The family has another 4 children, and it was going to be a challenge to find this additional £220. It was obvious Mohammend has needed this car seat for a while and we were only too pleased to send over our donation to ensure they could get it straight away. His family has told us what a massive d...

Today we can tell you about donation number 84.  Our member asked if we would support a social enterprise prison health service that supports men who are leaving HMP Kirkham -  an open prison for people at the end of their sentences and those serving shorter sentences.   It’s a little different to our regular causes, but when we heard how passionately the providers of this service hope to have a positive impact on the men they work with, we wanted to help. One of the aims of the service is to encourage more men to engage with health promotion. This includes specific health care and also the support available to them as they embark on the very real challenge of transitioning back to the community. Our £500 donation will be put towards vouchers for toiletries and essentials for prison leavers as well as funding some regular events to try to encourage more prisoners to plan and prepare for life outside prison.  Given that many prisoners are homeless or have no fixed abode, patients in...

Today we can tell you about donation number 83, which is £500 to the amazing charity SWWOP (Sheffield Working Women's Opportunities Project) to help them kick start a new Hygiene Bank. Their team provides intensive support to vulnerable women involved in street prostitution. Rosie at SWWOP told us how the cost-of-living crisis is having a major impact on their client group. Whilst the cost of food and fuel is rocketing - they have noticed more and more women presenting to their service asking for items to help keep themselves and their homes clean. Hygiene poverty is a growing issue across the UK with 1/5 of the population currently experiencing it. They have witnessed women make the choice between money for the gas meter or money for shower gel and shampoo. On top of the cost-of-living crisis and the impact this is having on hygiene poverty - they also think this is an important time to highlight 'PINK TAX'. Pink tax refers to the profit maximising techniques, adopted ...

Today we are pleased to tell you about donation 82, with which we can once again help a local family, identified by one of our members. We have been able to send £500 to a mum and her 4 teenage children, who have been left in an awful situation by her husband's addiction.  He has now moved abroad and gone from the picture, but the family is struggling financially.  The mum has never been to school, lost both her parents as a child and doesn't read or write any language.  She cannot work and her benefits were cancelled in February when her husband left and although she is being helped to get them reinstated, she probably won't get them backdated.   She is doing all she can to make sure her children are ok. We are only too pleased to be able to offer our little piece of help, and your £500 will help her with rent so they don't lose the roof over their heads as they try to navigate the next steps towards getting benefits reinstated and finding ways t...