Last week, I met a new refugee family from Eritrea. The single mom with 6 children, ages 2 – 15, has been in the USA for almost a month. Thanks to the International Institute and the Kunama community in Providence, they had a place to live, beds, with blankets to sleep in, dishes in the cabinets and food in the refrigerator. What they were lacking was clothes. They each had two outfits and one outfit was shorts. The clothes they were not wearing were drying in the apartment to be worn the next day. They were all wearing sandals.

We traveled down Broad Street to South Providence Neighborhood Ministries and with the help of Yvette, Joe, Felicia, Dominique and a couple volunteers we collected two boxes of clothing, towels and toiletries and bookbags full of school supplies. We returned to the apartment and it was like Christmas. Now everyone has coats, hats, gloves, socks, underwear and at least three more shirts/sweatshirts. (Pants and shoes were in short supply at SPNM.)

The family is very grateful for the clothing and supplies and to know that in this big new place, somebody cares about them. You made that possible. Thank you for all you do for SPNM and the families we serve.