Articles labeled: charity

The New York Times today profiles Kerron Rhaday, 16, who lost her mother to ovarian cancer and is now living with her older sister, Sharon Rhaday, 37, who is her legal guardian. The piece details how Rhaday has been helped by the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York, which is supported by the New York Neediest Cases Fund), highlighting the importance of such charity to provide counseling, school tuition and more to ensure these kids don’t fall through the cracks after a devastating loss.

In July, Kerron started seeing Emma Dorfman, a social worker at the agency, weekly. “The counseling really helps,” Kerron said. “Emma, she helps you down the right path.”

The right path was hard to find after her mother’s death.

“When you have a mom,” Kerron said, “and see her every day like that, for me it was hard to concentrate a lot in school, because most times I would cry and stuff.”

Kerron, who had been a 10th grader at Sheepshead Bay High School, in Brooklyn, missed class to care for her mother.

She did not return to school after her mother died. “It’s stupid decisions, but at the time that’s what was best for me, I felt,” Kerron said.

In the fall, she started attending classes at an alternative high school program at the Jewish Board center, where she sees Ms. Dorfman. The one-year program helps students get back on track before returning to a mainstream high school, Ms. Dorfman said.

Finally some heartwarming news for once. Vanessa Anderson, a 15-year-old from Maple Valley, Washington, isn’t content with texting her friends and hanging out on MySpace all day. Instead, she’s on a mission to take a trip to Ghana, West Africa, along with a 40-foot cargo container filled with medical supplies, reading materials, and more:

Dream big, he told her. Don’t just think about taking a suitcase full of school supplies or children’s vitamins. Think about taking a cargo container full of supplies, one that could be used — when emptied — for a classroom or a clinic.

Vanessa took his words to heart.

She’s now spearheading an effort to raise $16,000 by the end of this month to buy the container and cover the cost of shipping it to Ghana.

It will go to Bamboi, a place that is just now getting electricity and where residents walk long distances for water.

For Vanessa and others making the trip, it’s more than just a faraway place in a strange land.

There’s a personal connection.

Nana Kwaku Dapaah II, a member of the church who lives in Maple Valley with his wife and the youngest of his two sons, is from that area. Dapaah, an immigrant who travels to Ghana several times each year, is paramount chief of the Mo tribe, about 100,000 people who live in northwest Ghana. Living and working in the United States allow him to take opportunities to his people that they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Anyone interested in donating to this worth cause can send a check to Real Missions, P.O. Box 1511, Maple Valley, WA 98038.