Sitting in her church pew years ago, Suzette Warren was praying for one thing: a kidney. After many years against wanting to try to find a new kidney and spending hours a week on dialysis, Warren decided that it was time to find a permanent solution.

 

Having family that went through the same trials of needing a new kidney, Suzette needed a new solution to live her live for her family and for her missions work with her husband. While most people who need organs find themselves on a waiting list hoping for a call in the middle of the night, through the grace of her church, Suzette found a kidney from a new friend.

Leslie recounts the support she had from the church that she called home: “By the time Leslie was aware of my story, she found out about it in a church bulletin. And I was very sick my husband and the Pastor got together and suggested we put it in the church bulletin. And so long story short, 21 people called Mayo Clinic to donate a kidney to me. Most of those were the wrong blood type. Only nine had the correct blood type if I remember correctly. So right before, I guess it was the fall, Leslie called me and said she had called and went through the testing and she was a match.”

 

Leslie Workman also went to the same church and discovered that a fellow church member needed a kidney through a church bulletin. For Leslie, giving a kidney seemed natural, “There’s um, there’s a purpose to that, to be able to improve someone’s life, and potentially save someone’s life—its, its just an amazing thing.”

 

Stories like Suzette’s and Leslie’s are not common. Most people who need an organ are helped by someone like Tommy Mulligan of Mayo Clinic. Mulligan is an organ pecuric nurse, a professional that coordinates people on the waiting list to receive organs. Mulligan explains, “So I will get an offer whether it’s daytime, nighttime, whenever it might be. I’ll start the evaluation process I’ll start to work with the doctors whether it’s cardiology, hepatology, pal menology, if it becomes the Mayo Clinic’s recipient’s turn to actually receive that organ and we think it’s a good organ for them, we’ll start the logistics process and we will call the OR, the blood bank, the plane teams to send them out and recover them and bring them home.”

 

People like Tommy make it possible for lives like Suzettes to last after needing organs, and give these people hope. Suzette, Leslie and Tommy Mulligan all stress the need for people of all ages to become organ donors, because if not for Leslie’s gift, Suzette might never have gotten a kidney.

 

For more information about how you can become a kidney donor, go to https://www.donatelifeflorida.org/.

 

Oftentimes people have a roof over their heads but still may not be in the best situations.

The Jacksonville branch of Habitat for Humanity, also known as HabiJax has a mission to provide quality homes for people in need, one family at a time.

“We look for people who qualify that means people who are 50% below the average income here in Jax,” said Thomas Wehner a member of the Habijax Board of Directors. “We expect their credit rate to be above 600, if it’s not then we have a program that will help repair their credit program.”

 

Homebuyers are required to put down a 5-hundred dollar down payment before the construction can begin on a home. Inside Jacksonville spoke to Shena Simmons a Habijax applicant who just recently reached the build phase.

“It’s affordable, it’s an investment and it’s kind of easy once you get in there and do what they tell you to do. You have your brand new home built from the ground up,” Simmons said.

Home buyers like Shena must put in 300 hours of community service into the program as part of the requirements to qualify for a Habijax home.Generally applicants accumulate these hours by participating in other Habijax builds. They’re not alone in this effort, volunteers from all around the community help make up the Habijax construction teams.

“We’re building a house for somebody. It’s the 16th year that we participated in Habitat for Humanity. As an organization we have a large presence in the city of Jacksonville, we feel it’s extremely important to give back in some way, and this is one of those ways,” said Craig Tomeo a volunteer helping to construct Shena’s home. “It’s a very rewarding experience, especially when the owner or pending owner is with us participating, it gives it that special touch.”

 

HabiJax is a win-win for everyone. The volunteers get the opportunity to give back to their community and those in need get an affordable home in their name.

 

“One thing that HabiJax wants to give back to the community, is just that…community. Building families back over in this area again, giving families a reason to begin to move forward in building legacies for their families,” said Davetta Williams a Habijax Volunteer Serves Manager.

 

From start to finish building a HabiJax home takes around 9 weeks. Shena’s home should be done in April.

 

 

When most people think of volunteering, they think of giving back to the their local community, but some outreach programs may have even farther reaching effects. One First Coast organization is involved right here in local communities, but also plays the role of good samaritan on the international stage as well. World Relief Jacksonville has been successfully relocating refugees from countries all over the world including Burma, Afghanistan and Iraq since the 1991. As men, women and children fight each day simply to survive, the hopes of leaving behind a life of turmoil are often made in vain.

World Relief seeks to not only help as many of these victims as possible, but also to set an example in the United States by showing how these people can be productive, peaceful and a true asset to our diverse nation. The key to achieving this feat is education and awareness of the intensity of the refugee struggle.

 

There’s a common misconception that refugees leave their home country by choice, but the reality is these people were forced to relocate due to war, natural disaster or political persecution. Travis Trice works for World Relief Jacksonville and has heard many different stories from refugees over the years.

 

“The first thing as a refugee is you literally flee. You have to leave your home,” said Trice. “The story is always different. Sometimes a government will give you a time frame to leave and other times it’s gunfire in the middle of the night. So it’s all different but the result is always the same – you have to flee in fear of your life.”

 

Refugees spend an average of three years in refugee camps waiting to be relocated and according to Trice, less than half of one percent of all refugees have a chance of being relocated. Often, refugees may even spend ten years or more in a camp.

 

For those that are given the opportunity to relocate, once they arrive their difficult journey has just begun, but here on the First Coast volunteers are ready to help make that transition as joyful and easy as possible. World Relief volunteers are there from the moment refugees first step off the plane. They do their best to make this lengthy, challenging process of adapting to American culture easier. They assist in all aspects of the transition from teaching them English to helping them get a job.

“They say ‘I may not be able to do all of it, but I can do some of it,”” said World Relief Volunteer Hannah Nunez when speaking of the refugees attitude while adapting to American society. “These people are truly resilient.”

Without the support these volunteers provide, many of these people would face even more uncertainty. World Relief welcomes these men and women with open arms and an atmosphere of love when they need it most.