INCREASING NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN HUNTER STILL FINDING IT TOUGH
CEO calls on the Hunter community to ensure Samaritans doesn’t have to turn anybody away.
With just over a week until Christmas, Samaritans services are being inundated with requests for help by individuals and families prompting Samaritans Chief Executive Officer, Mr Cec Shevels, to call on the local community for assistance.
Emergency Relief is one of the services being inundated as they provide a helping hand to individuals and families in crisis. 2009 has been a challenging year for many in our community. This has been highlighted by the growing number of people who have sought assistance from Samaritans Emergency Relief and who continue to struggle to pay bills, purchase food or even maintain ongoing accommodation.
Samaritans launched its annual Christmas Appeal in November and Mr Shevels believes this Christmas is shaping up to be one of the most challenging Samaritans has seen in its 25 years working with the community.
Mr Shevels said, “In the past three months our Emergency Relief Centres have helped almost 2814 people, 770 of them being new clients who have never sought assistance from us before. This Christmas we have had so many enquiries from people in need of help that we have had to increase staff and volunteer hours to manage the volume or requests. Some major charities have even closed their books and we are trying very hard to ensure we don’t turn anybody away”.
For the eighth year running Samaritans is gearing up to provide a traditional Christmas lunch to those in the community who may not be in a position to otherwise celebrate Christmas or those who may not have friends or loved ones to spend the day with.
We hope to create a place where everyone in our community can join together and share in the joy of Christmas but as we expect guest numbers to be much higher this year we will need your help to do so,” said Mr Shevels.
In the Hunter, Samaritans and the Salvation Army have joined together to run the Combined Charities Christmas Warehouse, offering food and toys to those in need. This time last year the government was handing out stimulus package payments which reduced the demand for assistance. The Combined Charities are expecting that they will have seen 800 families by Christmas Day, almost double the number who received assistance last year.
Mr Shevels said “That’s a lot of Christmas gifts required to bring smiles to the faces of every child who is registered, many of whom would not be opening any presents on Christmas Day without your generous donations.”
Samaritans has been walking along side those in need, offering a friendly hand of support and hope in many areas of our community for 25 years and Mr Shevels said that without the vital assistance of community members it could not continue to offer these services.
With Christmas only days away Mr Shevels is encouraging all those who are able, to demonstrate the spirit of generosity that we’re used to seeing at this time of year. Mr Shevels said that by supporting Samaritans you are investing in your local community.
The $150,000 we are aiming to raise in this year’s Christmas Appeal helps us to build stronger local communities. We hope you will be able to support Samaritans this Christmas and offer a gift of hope to the growing number of people in need in our local community. Please join with us to ensure that no one misses out this Christmas,” he said.
Please support the appeal by donating online at www.samaritans.org.au or by phoning Samaritans 49 607 100.
