[IMC-US] [Fwd: Detroit Summer needs driver]

[max]

if anyone is heading down to LA and could possibly pass through SE
michigan, please email me or jennylee at riseup.net
feel free to forward this to folks who might be able to help.

max


-------- Original Message --------

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DRIVE TO LOUISIANA WITHIN THE NEXT THREE DAYS? (GAS IS PAID FOR)

The grassroots youth organization, Detroit Summer, is trying to donate 5
computers to Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children.  FFLIC
is a community-based organization that provides support for youth both inside
and outside of detention centers.  They are currently displaced and overwhelmed
by the crisis in New Orleans but are continuing tremendous work amidst the
circumstances.  They need computers and other office supplies so that they can
re-establish an office to work out of as they struggle to meet the critical
needs of their member families and youth, many of whom are lost or have been
killed.

A Detroit Summer member is willing to accompany the computers down to Sulphur,
LA, where FFLIC is temporarily based, but he needs a car and someone to share
the driving with.  The computers have to be in Louisiana by Saturday.  This
would mean leaving within the next three days and returning by the end of the
weekend.  Gas is paid for.

Contact: jennylee at riseup.net if you can do it.

A callout from FFLIC is posted below.

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REPOST from Families and Friends of Louisianas Incarcerated Children
> in New Orleans
 >
> Message:
> Brothers and Sisters Who Want to Help,
 >
> Families and Friends of Louisianas Incarcerated Children
> (FFLIC) is a 5 year old grassroots statewide organization
> dedicated to creating a better life for Louisiana's youth, who
> are or at risk of being incarcerated. We have offices in New
> Orleans and in Lake Charles. We have members across the
> state of Louisiana.
 >
> As you can imagine, our whole world has been turned upside
> down by the course of events in the last week.
 >
> We have members in New Orleans who we cannot find. Some
> were old and sick, some told us they were staying when we
> called last Saturday, saying God will take care of me. In
> Louisiana right now, there are hundreds of kids locked up who
> have no idea if their families are alive or not.
 >
> The youth from the Orleans Parish Detention Center arrived at
> Jetson Correctional Center for Youth on Wednesday, covered
> in sewage, starving, dehydrated, having been stranded for
> days with no water or food.
 >
> We want to find our members and the young people our sister
> organization works with (the Youth Empowerment Project) and
> their families. We need to find homes for children who are
> being released but have no homes to return to. We need to
> get people out of shelters that are treating them like prisoners
> and into homes or at least hotel rooms with food and water
> and some security and hope.
 >
> We also want the racist, dehumanizing news coverage to
> stop. We want members and non-members alike to LIVE and
> stop being blamed for being abandoned and left to die. We
> want our friends and families to stop being treated like
> insurgents in some kind of war, cast as looters, and thugs,
> and told that the people who are supposed to be saving them
> have the right to shoot to kill.
 >
> We want people to understand that, in the words of a friend, a
> hurricane of poverty and racism hit New Orleans a long time
> ago. The people you see on national TV today, drowning in
> contaminated water, starving to death, fighting for survival in a
> situation where no one meant for them to survive these people
> have been living this reality for years.
 >
> Only now, the world is watching. Only now it is happening
> faster and being photographed by news media that can get in
> and out of the city even though food and water cannot. Now,
> in vivi-color, we are all watching the sick truth of how this city,
> this state and this nation do not care about poor people of
> color. Worse than dont care.
 >
> So many people have written asking for ways they can help
> and were definitely going to need it.  If you want to help
> FFLIC help our families survive the ineptitude and racism has
> left thousands to die, here are some things you can do:
 >
> 1)  Donate:  Send a check to the FFLIC Hurricane Relief
> Fund to 920 Platt
> Street, Sulphur, Louisiana, 70663.
 >
> 2)  Volunteer:  Come and help us walk through the shelters,
> find people, help folks apply for FEMA assistance, figure out
> what needs they have, match folks up with other members
> willing to take people in.  We especially need Black folks to
> help us as the racial divide between relief workers and
> evacuees is stark.  Email us ASAP if you would like to help
> with this work.
 >
> 3) Send supplies for the effort:  We dont need tee-shirts and
> underwear.  We need things like cars, computers, a copy
> machine, a fax machine.  All of these items are going to what
> we need to have in place to better help our families.
> To find out exactly what we need, call us at the number below.
 >
> 4) Organize others to send donations, supplies or co
 >
> 5)  If you are of modest means and you cant volunteer your
> time, do what you believe gives us strength.  Pray, write op-
> eds or letters to the editor, organize your block, write FEMA
> and tell them what you think, protest local racist media
> coverage
 >
> Do not hesitate to email us with questions.  PLEASE email all
> 4 addresses however:
 >
> kdhiggs at hotmail.com,
> familiescantwait at yahoo.com,
> deenv_2000 at yahoo.com,
> xochitl at mediajumpstart.org