Massachusetts relief fund
for vulnerable workers & families
We continue to thank you for the long-term support our efforts at the Brazilian Worker Center over the last 25 years to stand beside, support, educate, serve, and organize our hard-working immigrant community in Massachusetts. During the current unprecedented health and economic crisis created by the Covid-19 Pandemic, unfortunately, our community has been among the first to lose their jobs in some of the most accessible areas of the economy where we have long been making deep contributions, such as restaurants, construction, domestic work, and landscaping. Working in these low-wage sectors as domestic worker “helpers,” restaurant busboys or dishwashers, tree-trimmers, or laborers in residential construction, many of our members have already been without work and income for a month or more. Unfortunately, some are also sick, stricken by the Virus.
Families are being deeply impacted. We have found that 2/3 of those who are benefitting from our food distributions are children. The typically “mixed status” families in our community, often with US-born citizen children, and adults with less secure immigration status, are usually ineligible for many important forms of government assistance, including unemployment insurance – even though they have responsible heads of households, and actively participate in faith communities and other forms of civic life that have revitalized so many neighborhoods, cities, and towns throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
At the BWC, we have redirected most of our staff and volunteer energies right now to support the emergency needs of our community. We are responding to food insecurity with food distributions to hundreds of families each week, and help for others in need of money to pay for life-saving prescriptions, diapers for their babies, electricity at their homes, and rent that is overdue. While we are aiming our assistance at those who do not qualify for government relief or unemployment benefits – and as you know, there are many of them in our community – we are also helping others who are eligible to fill out applications for Unemployment benefits, the WIC food program for infants and children, and Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC).
We are privileged that the immigrant community has come to trust the Brazilian Worker Center to support the community with information and resources they need. You can be sure that any contribution you make – and it will be valuable and welcomed, whatever the amount – will be directed at the families in most need right now.
The BWC is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, incorporated in Massachusetts, with a Federal Identification Number (EIN) of 04-3273525. Any donation you make will be fully tax-deductible. Please use the button below to make your donation, or make checks payable to Brazilian Worker Center, with “Relief Fund” written on the check, and send them to the BWC, 14 Harvard Avenue, 2nd Floor, Allston MA 02134.
DONATE
Please use this button to make a financial donation to support immigrant workers and their families using your credit card or PayPal.
The Brazilian Worker Center is a non-profit organization that receives no financial support from either the Brazilian or American government for our operations. Our mission is to support immigrant workers, defending their rights with regard to immigration, labor laws, discrimination, etc. For more information, call 617-782-8001, send us an email at [Info@braziliancenter.org], or connect with our website, [www.braziliancenter.org].