Save The Family Life Starter Kit Unveiled
Tamil Nadu, India (ots/PRNewswire)
- Three tsunami-afflicted families begin anew thanks to initiative to rebuild local lives and livelihoods
Today, three Indian families whose homes and livelihoods were wiped out by the tsunami were given a new future, thanks to an innovative program called Save The Family. The initiative, which is jointly sponsored by the IMGE Emergency Relief Fund and HOPE worldwide, ltd., consists of Life Packages that will provide tsunami-afflicted families the means to quickly rebuild their lives and their livelihoods.
Save The Family will supply a complete Life Package with all of the necessary elements to live and work, including a Life Starter Kit comprised of a thatched roof hut, cooking utensils, stove, food and supplies (for two months), furniture, bedding, children's books, school uniforms, clothes; and a Business Starter Kit, including a boat, engine, fishing net and other work-related equipment. Each Life Package costs just $5,500 (USD) and will be paid for using donations to the IMGE Emergency Relief Fund. "I've never seen such joy as when the first three families were shown their new homes," said Andrew J. Krieger, a program founder. "We have two more being built, and will keep going until we've exhausted our donations or given every afflicted family a home and a means to earn a living."
The announcement was made jointly by program partners Mark Templer, Country Director, HOPE worldwide, ltd. (HWW), and Andrew J. Krieger, CEO, IMGE Emergency Relief Fund (IMGEERF). HWW is a charity operating in 75 nations and serving more than one million needy people every year. IMGEERF is an India-focused, tsunami-relief organization devoted to providing sustainable, grassroots aid, with a long-term commitment to rebuilding local communities.
According to Mark Templer, "IMGEERF is taking concrete steps to do something practical and powerful. I'm excited about working with them because they, like us, want to make a long-term difference in the lives of people here by helping families rebuild their futures." Templer added that it was significant the Life Packages were finished on the eve of Pongal, the harvest festival, "because it signifies a return to the harvest of the sea, which has sustained these people for literally thousands of years."
Krieger added, "The beauty of our Life Packages is that they enable the afflicted to restart their lives -- fast. The fishermen can again provide food and shelter for their wives and children, and the village economies -- which rely heavily on fishing -- can start to sustain the people again. We've heard repeatedly from the villagers themselves that they don't want handouts, they just want to earn their living and live in a proper home and with their families -- to cook their own food, pray in privacy, hold their children quietly at night -- and you can't do these things in a temporary refugee shelter. We are thankful to be working with HOPE worldwide because their decades of experience in India will get the job done quickly, and expertly."
Please Direct Contributions To:
IMGE Emergency Relief Fund/Save The Family
One Bridge Plaza, Suite 690
Fort Lee, N.J. 07024
United States
All Contributions are Tax-Deductible
Visit IMGE Emergency Relief Fund at: http://www.imgeemergency.com
Visit HOPE worldwide at: http://www.hopeww.org
Web site: http://www.imgeemergency.com
http://www.hopeww.orgContact:
Kimberly Bernhardt for IMGE Emergency Relief Fund, +1-212-843-8056,
cell, +1-917-903-5280, or kbernhardt@rubenstein.com; or Avantika
Bhargava of IMGE Emergency Relief Fund, +1-201-242-0181, cell
+1-201-724-8278, or avantika@imgb.com