You may not have heard of SARET Charitable Fund before, but hundreds of DuPage and Kane County residents will tell you that SARET was their last hope when they faced hunger and homelessness. We are writing to ask your help in building a special disability emergency fund for area residents in the Western suburbs.

In 2005, the world gasped as hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting people in southeast Asia suddenly found themselves injured, homeless, and completely helpless in a matter of seconds from one natural disaster – a tsunami. Later in the summer of that year, hundreds of thousands Americans experienced that same devastation and it will takes years for the recovery to happen.

Similarly, in a quieter way and closer to home, few people are aware of the numbers of residents of our community who, in seconds, become unable to provide for themselves or their children because of a life crisis. As an organization that provides emergency assistance, we have found that effective emergency aid programs – don’t really exist. We at SARET know this is true because we experience this reality every day in the calls we received from people crying out for help.

SARET Charitable Fund was incorporated in 1985 as a 501 |(c)(3) organization to help indigent refugees, single mothers, elderly and disabled people. We have always been 100% volunteer – run with a minimal overhead budget. Over the years, other agencies have emerged and we had hoped that the needs of people facing emergencies would be better met. We were wrong. Other programs would only provide one time and often very limited assistance per calendar year.

As a result of this grim reality, our board decided to intensify efforts to address the emergency needs of families and individuals facing homelessness due to factors beyond their control: such as economy, under employment, illness of family members and chronic disabilities.

During the past five years, the Department of Human Resources at DuPage County referred to SARET increasing numbers of people with disabilities who cannot always meet their rent, utilities groceries and other essential needs. Rarely does the community as a whole hear about these people. The statistics suggest that around 100,000 DuPage residents suffer disabilities. Those people then learn, at their time of need, that they do not qualify for even minimal compensation while waiting eligibility for social disability. They continuously report how they are mistreated by the Illinois Department of Human Resources that creates more obstacles in their way than solutions. They rarely qualify for cash assistance of any sort. Some are ready and wanting to work, but are unable to resume their previous employment because of their disability and can’t find new employers who will take into consideration their new limitations (such as chronic lower back pain, which is a common problem, serious carpel tunnel conditions that affect work involving the hands, fatigue, heart disease and countless other physical limitations).

In 1999, SARET’s annual budget for assistance was less than $5000. From that point SARET’s funding has grown thanks to private donations and jewelry sales. As a result, SARET gave out $36,000 in fiscal year 2004 and $50,000 in fiscal year 2005 in emergency assistance.

Who are the people SARET Charitable Fund has helped ?

People who lost their jobs, people who are underemployed due to the impact of globalization who can’t find employment in their field, single mothers with little or no child support who are juggling low paying jobs. The most troubling category, however, has been that of people with temporary or long term disabilities who were injured either at work or elsewhere, as well as in automobile accidents. Insurance usually cover only the costs of medical care and car compensation. Regretfully, people fail to include disability insurance in their insurance plans.

It takes about four years to qualify for Social Disability benefits. That program is seriously logged up due to insufficient manpower to meet the calls for help. Workman’s compensation is often sabotaged by employers, and those injured find themselves with no income while suffering horrendous injuries and pain.

We also see that same nightmare with people diagnosed with chronic and severe health challenges such as cancer, lupus, multiple sclerosis and other chronic and debilitating health conditions. Several of our clients have children with cancer or Sickle Cell, which has impaired their ability to work full time jobs.

Based on the number of calls and interviews we have conducted, SARET will need to raise at least $300,000 a year to meet the current volume of requests found to deserve assistance. We cannot describe how painful it is to turn away a deserving client when we know that there is no other real help out there for them. The townships are providing minimal one time assistance per year. Other agencies that use governmental grants have to abide by severely restrictive guidelines that do not qualify the disabled since they cannot show ability to return to work.

We have observed with much sadness as time and time again, governmental services fail to respond and meet basic survival needs, forcing former taxpayers to wait for months while they have no income and desperately need emergency aid. This disability emergency fund has been named in memory of Barbara K. Brent, a passionate human-needs advocate who helped thousands of homeless DuPage residents through the PADS organization and dedicated herself also to assisting the disabled. She died in 2004 of an illness at age 53. We hope that this fund will continue her mission to bring hope and love to those who have been often forgotten.

We invite you to join us in building this fund. The fund will help pay such necessities as rent, utilities, and food vouchers for healthy fresh food and health supplies of clients who meet the challenges we described in this letter.

To learn more about our organization please visit our website at: WWW.SARETCharitableFund.org.