JFS Refugee Housing Fund

Organization Image

A nonprofit fundraiser supporting

Jewish Family Service of Silicon Valley

Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley supports people fleeing persecution to find a better life.

$9,744

raised by 38 people

$50,000 goal

Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley is currently the only organization resettling refugees in Santa Clara County, California.  Our resettlement program is structured so that clients are continuously learning and developing an awareness of their surroundings so that they can become self-sufficient as soon as possible.  First and foremost is ensuring that newly arriving refugees have the most essential of all needs: SHELTER. 

During these dark days of Covid-19, we are newly aware – more than ever - of what essential means. Basic needs: housing, food, a place to shelter, to call home, is what is keeping us safe and healthy.

Housing refugees in the densely populated and highly expensive Silicon Valley Bay Area is always a challenge. Additional obstacles are faced by refugees who are older, have limited English skills, and/or have a past history of trauma. Providing housing during the current Shelter In Place raises that challenge exponentially. Our donors have a history of unsurpassed generosity and graciousness, can we ask you for even more?

Families that were once able to provide rooms to refugee families no longer can. The health and safety concerns are too great a risk to allow the previous sharing of space that we took for granted.  Refugee families require separate safe housing. The most basic low rental is sufficient. We have families of seven or eight sharing two bedroom apartments. 

As a community committed to the safety and preservation of dignity, as a people who have had to rely on the kindness of strangers for survival, it behooves us to step up and do what we can. We may not be able to open our homes but we can open our wallets, to make sure that rent can be met, that dignity and health, along with safety, can be assured. 

Would you consider donating to our emergency refugee housing fund?  We are all facing economic and social uncertainty, but perhaps we can alleviate some of that anxiety by offering what we can to people even more at risk than ourselves. We were once strangers in a strange land, but we’re all strangers to these dark times. Hopefully, together, we can hold hands, at least figuratively. 

Any donation, no matter the size, would go such a long way toward ensuring the health and safety of a lonely and frightened family.

Giving Activity

Comments

Log in to leave a comment. Log in