We are proud to announce that coming into 2013 we are a 4-star charity with Charity Navigator. We have been a 4-star charity with them for 9 years. For more information on our charity and rating please visit www.charitynavigator.org. We have constantly been receiving food or drink truckloads weekly to help feed the hungry on the Reservations. We acquire food and drinks such as meat, salvage groceries, beans, vegetables frozen items, water, Gatorade, juices, etc.
We received Tempur Pedic mattresses to distribute to the Reservations especially to the families who were sleeping on the cold, hard floors or to families that had one mattress for everyone to sleep on. They were so excited to actually have a brand new bed to sleep in and one where they didn’t have to share with their whole family.
Another truckload that we recently acquired was paint. Rosebud just informed us that they repainted the whole inside of one of the nursing homes on the Reservations. I know paint isn’t a necessity but it helps fix up homes, schools, nursing home, etc to make them look presentable.
We continue to help the poverty stricken Native Americans living on the Reservations in South Dakota. We know as a small organization we cannot fix every single problem on the Reservations, that is something the government needs to do, but we can make life a little bit easier and less stressful for them by providing them with heating vouchers, food vouchers, dinners during the holidays and life necessities.
In October of 2013, the Reservations NAHA serves was hit with a massive, record breaking blizzard. Around 3 feet or more of snow fell. As a result of this brutal storm it shut off electricity, killed thousands of cattle and even took 4 lives. Pine Ridge Reservation declared a state of emergency and shut down everything.
Many Native Americans barely have enough propane to heat their homes during a normal winter day without snow so can you imagine what it felt like in some of the homes when the winds were clocked at 70 mph. The walls in the homes on the Reservations are paper thin, which makes it that much worse. You can see why our Operation Winter Rescue is such an important program. Without it, many homes would go without heat during the harsh winter months , which lasts from September to May. On top of the 3 feet of snow they just got, they now are dealing with rainfall and warmer temperatures which means major flooding.