The Dallas Foundation has raised nearly $40,000 for nonprofit organizations in Vickery Meadow, a diverse, low-income community in the spotlight because of Ebola.
Meanwhile, others are raising money to directly help families affected by Ebola and two nurses who contracted the virus from a Liberian man who was staying in Vickery Meadow.
The efforts are part of the flow of compassion for those who knew and cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the U.S.
After several rejections, Wilshire Baptist Church is scrambling to find permanent new housing for Duncan’s fiancée, Louise Troh, 54, who is a member of the church. Wilshire Baptist is raising money to resettle her and her family after they were placed under a mandatory isolation order that ended Sunday.
Troh, her 13-year-old son and two older nephews had to move when decontamination of their apartment destroyed nearly all their household belongings. They have been staying at a retreat owned by the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.
Mark Wingfield, the church’s associate pastor, said requests to rent apartments or condos have been rejected multiple times. “Landlords don’t want the publicity or who knows what,” Wingfield said. “It is discriminatory and wrong, but we have to urgently find her a place to live.
“It is important to see Louise and her family as people with dignity who have the capacity to take care of themselves if given a fair playing field.”
Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, two nurses who got the virus while treating Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, also had their apartments decontaminated and their household belongings placed in hazardous materials barrels. Funds have been set up to help them. The fund for Pham, the first nurse infected, had reached nearly $90,000 as of Tuesday. Vinson’s fund had about $7,000.
Many others, mostly health care workers, placed themselves in isolation while they waited to see if they too had contracted the virus while caring for Duncan. At least one other family with children was in self-imposed isolation at another Vickery Meadow apartment.
Two weeks ago, the Dallas Foundation began an assistance fund with money from an undisclosed philanthropist who was already focused on the densely populated Vickery Meadow neighborhood, said Laura Ward, the foundation’s director of community philanthropy.
“Families coming out of quarantine are in need of some level of assistance,” Ward said. “It could be lost wages or a family that lost all of its personal belongings.”
It’s not yet clear how the money will be divided. But the Dallas Foundation is working closely with city and county officials and faith-based groups, Ward said.
Ward said there are about 100 service providers working in Vickery Meadow, where many immigrants and refugees have settled and more than two dozen languages are spoken. About 70 of those groups focus on after-school projects, Ward said.
Fear and worry moved some volunteers to stop going into the neighborhood. Ward called for fresh recruits this week. “We need to fill the gap left by some volunteers who are taking a break,” she said. “It is going to take several weeks for things to return to normal.”
Beyond the fundraising, Ward said the foundation is searching for ways to boost morale in Vickery Meadow, where about 30,000 people live in more than 90 apartment complexes.
Along those same lines, the artist-founders of Trans. Lation: Vickery Meadow are talking to teachers to launch a plan to help school hildren. Trans.Lation began last year as part of the 10th anniversary of the Nasher Sculpture Center and was one of 10 projects to place art outside the downtown walls of the museum.
Trans.Lation hopes to start a program to help children express themselves about the Ebola crisis, said Lucia Simek, a Nasher spokeswoman.
Follow Dianne Solís on Twitter at @disolis.
HOW TO HELP
For the Vickery Meadow Assistance Fund set up by the Dallas Foundation, go to dallasfoundation.org.
To help Louise Troh and her family through Wilshire Baptist Church, go to instructions for the Benevolence Fund at wilshirebc.org/give/opportunities-for-giving.
Funds for nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson can be found at gofundme.com/ninaphamdallas and gofundme.com/4amber.
