A couple days ago, I attended a webinar hosted by Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest to learn more about how Covid-19 has impacted refugee families. While I already knew that most refugees work in the service industry or other industries basically shut down by Covid-19 and that most refugees have been out of work at least temporarily, what I didn't know was that access to technology has been the most challenging barrier for refugee families. All the resources available to people during this time are available online; even getting information about non-online resources is online. Given that, if you would like to be of service to our refugee sisters and brothers, you are most welcome to donate gently used (and fully working) iPads and computers to Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest on Mondays or Tuesdays between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm at 2502 E University Drive, Suite 125, Phoenix. If you would like to be partnered with a family so that you could provide wifi access for a particular number of months, please let me know you are interested. LSS-SW is still figuring out how to make that happen best.
One of the other needs of refugee families right now is hand soap and cleaning products as an EBT card (food stamps) does not allow these items. Again, to donate, bring your items on Mondays or Tuesdays between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm to their Phoenix address: 2502 E University Drive, Phoenix. If you have questions about donations to LSS-SW, please contact Jenny Tatum at jtatum@lss-sw.org or 480-450-0411.