Helping Out for July 29, 2020

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Helping Out highlights some of the many charitable events and activities going on in the Charleston area. Submit your news using our online form.

The Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation has awarded a $5,000 grant to the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired South Carolina’s Own Your Life program. The program provides personal independence and vocational rehabilitation training for adults who are blind, visually impaired or have a progressive eye condition in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.

Program courses include assistive technology, educational webinars and mobility training. Vision rehabilitation training is available in Charleston and Ladson, as well as online.

Fetter Health Care Network will provide free COVID-19 testing from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at Charleston County School of the Arts, at 5109 W. Enterprise St. in North Charleston.

Fetter offers walk-up and drive-thru testing at its mobile clinics. Individuals are asked to be prepared to wait two to three hours for services, and to practice social distancing and wear a face covering while waiting for testing. Registration forms can be printed out prior to arrival.

Water Mission has received a $250,000 grant from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy to support ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. The grant is part of the center’s 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund, which supports a joint rebuilding effort among Water Mission, UNICEF, the Bahamian government, local authorities and other nongovernmental organizations.

The grant will contribute to two community-based projects. The first will create one of the largest solar arrays in the Bahamas, providing disaster resilience for municipal water systems in the Marsh Harbour wellfields in the Abaco Islands.

The second project provides safe water for six area schools. Water Mission is partnering with Friends of the Environment to install rainwater collection systems; safe water storage capabilities; and water, sanitation and hygiene education for schoolchildren.

A rain catchment system will also be installed at the Friends of the Environment’s Kenyon Research Centre to facilitate research by providing lower-cost housing, storage, basic lab facilities and logistical assistance.