500 together

For our 81st donation, we  have sent £500 to a local family    - mum and 3 primary school aged children - who find themselves in heartbreaking financial difficulties.     Mum has status to live in the UK, but has no access to benefits (including free school meals for her kids). She is ill and having kidney dialysis and has not been able to work.  With no income, it is so tough for them as bills continue to rise.  They are having to make choices about when they can turn the oven on to cook.   They are being supported by a local community organisation, who tell us that our donation will help stave off eviction and give them a bit of breathing space.  It does feel like a drop in the ocean for a family who is clearly living in very challenging circumstances, but we are assured that our help does make a difference and we send our very best wishes to this mum and her family.

Wow - here we are, with details of our 80th donation.  Thank you all so much for being a part of 500 together and helping us reach so many people. This week your £500 is supporting a local family from Sheffield to set up a permanent home after fleeing from domestic violence. The mum and children will finally be able to put down permanent roots in a community and be assured that they no longer need to escape an area and now have a safe and secure home to create a new life in. The family are being supported by a local community worker who will help them buy essentials for the house with our donation, as they had to leave with very little.

We were recently asked by one such member to give a small donation to OSMIS alternative provision to help buy equipment, pots, grow bags and seeds which would allow the young people who access their support the opportunity to start a little fruit and veg garden at their base. OSMIS offers 1:1 alternative  provision focussing on the social and emotional aspects of children's wellbeing, improving their attitude to education and learning. Many of the children they work with don’t choose fruit or veg among their food options and OSMIS hope that by growing their own they can not only encourage some interest in gardening, but also encourage them to eat the produce they grow.  We loved this idea and were pleased to send £100 to get them started and are impressed with the results so far.

We are pleased to be back with news of donation number 78.  This time £500 goes to   Lilies Clothes Bank , to buy some new kids underwear, socks and young girls' crop tops - the kind of items that you need to buy new but really make the bills add up for families buying them.  Lilies clothes bank started up in January 2021, after one of the volunteers at Grace foodbank saw that families in the area (some of whom were being helped by the foodbank), were also struggling for essential clothes and warm clothing in the middle of lockdown and an extremely cold winter.  Every Monday since then, Lilies clothes bank has been operating in Jordanthorpe, helping families in receipt of benefits/ free school meals and individuals in hardship with clothes and has also run several clothing 'events', with a theme - school uniform, baby clothes, small children's clothes. At Christmas time they gave away lots of warm clothing and winter coats alongside food bank donations.  All in ...

  We don't think anyone has forgotten that whilst the plight of Ukrainians is rightly front and centre of the news, the challenges faced by the people from Afghanistan is still a very real and pressing issue. With this latest £500 donation, we are really pleased to be able to help an Afghan family of 5: Mum, Dad and three children 9, 7 and 2, who have been resettled in Sheffield.  Social services have sorted some very basic furniture for them, but a charity that is working with them has said that a TV and TV license would help their home life become more comfortable, help with the English language and link them to the outside world.  When they were told that  500 together  would help them, they asked for a small TV so that they could also get a toaster and a microwave for the same amount of money.   They are so grateful for the help they have received and say thank you to everyone at  500 together.  

Donation number 76. This sees £500 going to a Sheffield family of four to help make some essential repairs to their roof that needed repairing after the storms and to ease the pressure of the rising cost of living. The family have been going through a tough time, as the Dad has been undergoing chemotherapy and stem cell treatment and has been extremely poorly for quite some time.  Dad worked up until the point of having to be admitted to hospital for many weeks and is now back at home making a recovery but unable to work just yet, so the family are reliant on the Mum’s wage who works part time at a nursery. 

We have just made donation 75 after a member got in touch to tell us about a man she is supporting.  We cannot share all the details of his situation, but this was a donation we had no doubt we wanted to make. K is a father of 4.  He continues to suffer with some mental health difficulties after the death of his mother and one of his daughters who  died in the most tragic of circumstances.   We cannot share the details, but the stress involved has left him unable to work , cope independently and navigate the system to apply for appropriate support.  Thankfully now he does have a support worker to help him to apply for benefits (although the wait is still a long one) and he is receiving weekly provision from the local food bank.  He has outstanding bills to pay and his situation has become really overwhelming for him and so he can never catch up or get in front. ...