A foster care organization is asking people to send donations — including monetary ones — to help foster families in western North Carolina impacted by Helene.
Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina is working to help hundreds of foster families in the western part of the state.
“We need to be able to keep our vehicles gassed up,” said Gaile Osborne, the executive director of the organization. “We need to be able to have cash, readily available to hand our families when we do go in to see them, because it's not like you can run to the corner store and get gas anymore. You have to have cash. I mean the systems are down.”
Osborne, who lives in the Asheville area, has been a foster parent to five children who she’s since adopted. Three of the five are special needs kids, who she said are medically fragile — a main reason why she and her family left the area due to Helene.
So, Osborne said she understands the needs of foster families, adding her organization has already helped impacted foster families in several ways.
“When we go in, we don't just go in with a can of formula, or we don't just go in with water,” she said. “We go in with, you know, entertainment for the kids. We go in with toys. We go in with food, whatever that we can think of, that that family may need.”
Osborne said foster families are also in need of medication as well as funds for hotels.
For those who want to donate, they can visit FFA-NC.org.
