Volunteers of America Works to Help Those Hurt by Current Economic Conditions

Oprah Winfrey Show correspondent Lisa Ling (left) and Volunteers of America’s Winter Shelter residents in Sacramento, Calif.
Volunteers of America works all across the nation to help homeless individuals and families overcome their current situation with a variety of services, ranging from temporary shelter to affordable permanent housing. More and more, situational homelessness caused by unemployment and foreclosure has become reality for many families that once lived stable, middle class lives.

The Oprah Winfrey Show recently featured an interview with the Whitesides family, who are homeless and living temporarily in Volunteers of America’s Winter Shelter in Sacramento, Calif. The investigative piece by correspondent Lisa Ling, titled “Tent Cities in America,” focused on “the new faces of the recession,” including families who have lost their home as a result of the economic downturn.

Paul Farmer is a physician and an anthropologist, and according to at least one of his former patients in Haiti, he’s a god. Farmer specializes in infectious disease; he’s made it his mission to transform health care on a global scale, by focusing on the world’s poorest and sickest communities. Back in 1987, Farmer helped found a nonprofit called Partners in Health, which says its mission is both medical and moral. Now, the group treats 1,000 patients daily for free in the Haitian countryside. The group also works to cure drug-resistant tuberculosis among prisoners in Siberia and in the slums of Lima, Peru.