Adopt-a-Classroom, one of my favorite charities, has launched a drive that will directly assist teachers in West, Texas, recover from losses sustained in an explosion and fire at an ammonia plant on April 18.
The fire leveled a large part of the town and resulted in a great loss of life and the great destruction of homes, businesses, and schools.
“The return to normal can’t happen without the schools recovering, too,” Adopt-a-Classroom said in an email. The teachers of West have lost many teaching materials, things teachers frequently buy themselves.
Here’s how you can help through Adopt-a-Classroom:
- Make a donation at adoptaclassroom.org/west: 100 percent of your donation will go directly to devastated classrooms in West, Texas
- Spread the word. Forward this link or visit facebook.com/adoptaclassroom and share the “Help West Win Again” photo with your Facebook friends
Several other organizations have joined in the cause as well, most of which are general aid organizations. A summary was run by NBC News, here.
Please note that since the explosion, needs in West have changed. Gov Rick Perry’s website made the following request for certain donations to stop:
According to the City of West, donations of goods pouring into support the citizens of West are overwhelming and more than sufficient. Although extremely grateful for the willingness of people to help, local authorities ask that donations of unrequested goods stop. Lack of ability to coordinate and store donations taxes the ability of volunteers to assist where needed. Please consider making a cash donation to assist in rebuilding and to meet other needs that cannot be met with donated goods.
Some specific supplies were put on lists by the nearby Hays Consolidated Independent School District, which has coordinated a substantial volunteer effort for the schools and students of West. Ongoing goals include the following, according to the West ISD:
- Support the work of first responders
- Return students to schools and the security that comes from normal routines
- Repair school buildings to the safe and secure buildings our community takes pride in
As we continue to monitor the requests for aid coming from the schools in West, Texas, we came across a blog post by Leo Casey on the Shanker Blog entitled “‘A Single Garment Of Destiny’ For American And Bangladeshi Workers.”
The title is a reference to the letter Martin Luther King Jr wrote from a jail in Birmingham, Ala., and the remainder of the post compares the explosion described in this article to the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh. More than 400 workers lost their lives in Bangladesh, and unsafe working conditions are being blamed for the disaster.
Both catastrophic losses were avoidable, Mr Casey wrote, and both reveal a pattern of abuses dictated by corporate greed and putting the lives of workers at risk unnecessarily.
He concludes: “That is, the future of American workers and their unions is tied, inextricably, to the future of the workers of other nations. So long as the world’s most exploited workers can be denied the right to free, independent unions that would empower them to fight for their own rights and freedoms, our rights and our unions will be in danger. So long as the workers of Bangladesh and similar nations can be harshly exploited, our living standards and our working conditions are also open to exploitation.”