Caring For Others, a 501c3 with a mission of eradicating poverty, opened a Rehoming Center to provide brand new furniture, bedding, kitchen supplies, and other household goods to families that qualify via FEMA that have been impacted by the recent hurricanes, floods, California wildfires, and other recent natural disasters.
The new, dedicated Rehoming Center is located at Caring For Others headquarters in a warehouse on-site located at 3537 Browns Mill Rd SE #2.
This program is in tandem with the nonprofit’s “All Hands Mission” which provides support to those impacted by catastrophic disasters across the United States and overseas.
In October, Caring For Others hosted an “All Hands Mission” distribution providing more than $750,000 in merchandise to Augusta residents with assistance from The Convoy of Care, a partnership activated during disasters with NOBLE (National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives), Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Patrol and other state law enforcement agencies along with WSB-TV (ABC affiliate) and the Georgia Motor Trucking Association.
However, there have been an increasing number of families struggling with bouncing back from the hurricanes, the CA fires, and other recent natural disasters; and Caring For Others sees there is clearly a need for ongoing support for those impacted, ultimately propelling the launching of the dedicated Rehoming Center.
The “All Hands Mission” is a coalition of local companies that aim to provide immediate aid, relief, and comfort to areas severely impacted by catastrophic natural disasters across the United States and overseas.
Caring For Others Founder and CEO Eslene Richmond-Shockley has been providing relief funds and supplies to those impacted by dozens of natural disasters over the last two decades.
“Our goal is to provide families with a kick-start to a new home with our Rehoming Center,” Shockley said. “We aim to provide the communities impacted by the recent natural disasters with the proper goods they need to start their journey of feeling at home again.”
The Rehoming Center is what Caring For Others calls its “third phase”, which is rebuilding and reforming. Phase one, or loss intervention, is when families lose everything in loss intervention and then the help comes in the second phase.
In the rehoming center, Shockley says families are entitled to get whatever it is they see whether it’s a bed, new mattress, dresser, nightstand, table chair, anything.
“They can get it absolutely, there’s no boundaries in that room because if it was me, I would have loved to be treated in that manner,” she says.
Personally, helping these families, Shockley says it makes her feel whole again when she sees the devastation and the lost the families go through, and to know their organization can lend a helping hand to put them back on their feet again is a blessed feeling.
“At Caring For Others, we are a poverty eradication organization all around the world, and we provide food, clothing, economic support, and for people who are going to work for the first time, we get them new clothing and suits,” she said.
Divine Drumglole, an Augusta resident and victim of Hurricane Helene, says she’s grateful to a friend who put her name on a list of people who have been displaced since Helene hit Augusta. However, she says people don’t realize how bad the hurricane impacted people’s lives.
“My neighborhood was demolished, my house was gutted out, I have nowhere to live except with family, and I don’t think people realize how hard it hit us,” she said.
Drumglole also says she feels overwhelmed with how much care and intent Caring For Others have given her.
“The things I’m getting today is brand new, like no one else has touched those things, it’s very touching, so they care more for me than a lot of people because you don’t get brand new things from people you don’t know,” she said. “They have to care with their whole heart, so I appreciate it.”
Although her home isn’t ready yet, Drumglole says she has hope to go back to on her way home.
“I really am blessed, I feel I’m chosen to come in for the first seed of this business, the first seed of her [Shockley’s] vision, the lady that spoke to me when I walked in to know that she birthed this, and that I’m the first seed in this ground,” she said.
She also said she must be special, and God trusts her enough to bring her to a place where she can help bring a vision to pass. It’s deeper than her showing up for a TV or whatever else, Drumglole said, it’s about being a seat she’s been entrusted with to watch, water, and grow.
“I just thank Mrs. Shockley as a visionary. I thank God and everyone in this room to know I’m the first seed and many more will come,” she said. “It’s given me so much hope.”
