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Generous Home Educators Reach Out to Home Schooling Hurricane Victims

by Jim Brown
September 9, 2005

(AgapePress) - Home-schooling families across the United States are lending a helping hand to fellow home schoolers who have sustained heavy losses due to Hurricane Katrina.

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) asked its members to donate to a special "Hurricane Emergency Response" program. The home-education advocacy group set up the special program to help displaced home-schooling families that lack employment or need to replace lost or destroyed curriculum materials.

HSLDA's president, Mike Smith, says the response to the disaster response campaign has been nothing short of miraculous. "We've had many people offer to make donations and send in donations," he notes. In an overwhelming show of generosity, hundreds of individuals have offered to provide curriculum, employment, and other emergency needs to Katrina victims.

Meanwhile, since the group realized housing would be a major problem for many home-school families displaced by the hurricane, Smith points out that HSLDA members were also asked if they'd be willing to put people up in their homes or otherwise provide housing. "Over 3,500 families have indicated they would be willing to do that," he says. "The generosity has just been remarkable, to say the least."

The head of HSLDA believes there are two main reason for this outpouring of compassionate generosity. "Most of our members are Christians," he notes, "and I think they're just following the only two 'rules' we have in Christianity -- love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. And I think that's what this is about. Because they love God they recognize that there is a responsibility to love others, and I think they truly do love others."

Secondly, the home educators organization's president thinks there is a sense of fellow-feeling or solidarity at work behind the tremendous response to the call for donations. "This is -- for want of a better term -- a fraternity of people that have common purposes, and identity, and battles out there," he says, "and I think there's this affinity for one another."

Smith estimates that there are some 1,200 to 1,500 home-school families in the New Orleans area that are in need of help. When Mississippi and Alabama families are included, the number rises to about 5,000. Home-schooling families seeking assistance or wishing to donate to the Hurricane Emergency Response program are being asked to visit the Home School Foundation website for more information.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

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