Many families need help during the holiday season, especially now more than ever while we are still in a pandemic. Some people watch those in need, others take action. Over the weekend, Chicago-born community activist Englewood Barbie, who runs the nonprofit Hugs No Slugs, stepped forward to help a displaced family living at a bus stop. #EnglewoodBarbie shared on Instagram that she was upset with how many people decided to take the family in and tag them on the social media post instead of taking action and helping them. She decided to look for the family, which included four children, ages 3 to 12. One of the children is autistic.
The family who lived at the bus stop on 89 and Ashland in Chicago had been evicted since July due to a fire. The family previously lived with family members. The wife’s husband has health problems such as diabetes, COPD, and heart failure. The woman wanted to take her family to a shelter where they could stay together, but many animal shelters did not allow them to stay together due to her husband’s health conditions. This resulted in them taking care of money to raise money for a hotel.
EnglewoodBarbie and others went out to get the family off the streets and get the family to a livable hotel. One person paid for the family to stay in a hotel for a week and EnglewoodBarbie paid the rest of the month. Their efforts didn’t stop there. Thanks to her large social media fan base, she was able to receive donations from affected individuals via CashApp. She was able to raise over $ 1,400.
After the family settled at the hotel, they went to Walmart to buy clothes, diapers, and other necessities for the children and spent over $ 1,000 out of their own money. The kids needed new items due to the hotel they had bed bugs in before.
The cry of support didn’t stop there. One of her connections, who works with the Jordan brand, contacted her to donate shoes to the young children. She also made sure to buy toys for the young children for Christmas. As she took off her shoes, one of the autistic children remembered EnglewoodBarbie and said to his father, “Dad, look at the plane, it’s coming to get us.” He named her airplane after she gave her a toy airplane. She was very touched by it and changed her name to Barbie the Airplane. Your goal is to find permanent housing for the family before the end of the month.
Roommate, let’s use this as an example to help those in need if you can. Don’t take a picture and share displaced people. See what you can do to help them.
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