Want to put a real face on Passover this year? Helping out up close, a family who, like our ancestors, walked out of the African land they lived in?  This is about an immigrant refugee family from South Sudan, who moved to Boulder a few years ago. They are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, while trying to keep their very sick infant alive.  As a community, we’ve helped the Lost Boys & Lost Girls who came here when they first arrived.  This family needs your help, our help.  Rabbi Deborah Bronstein has set up and is administering a Go Fund Me Account for them; we are up to just over $3000 — very grateful, and still far short of what the family will need.

Click here to find out how you can jump in for Jeremiah!

Baby Illale Jeremiah, born just days after Thanksgiving, is turning 4 months this week — in the hospital. He has an extra 18th chromosome; most babies with Trisomy 18 don’t make it past the first week of life. But he is a fighter, a miracle baby, who joins a tiny single-digit percentage of boys (and girls) with this disorder who make it to 4 months.  Jeremiah’s parents fled South Sudan on foot more than a decade ago, meeting in a refugee camp.  They were among the lucky few who were allowed to immigrate to the USA.  Illale Jeremiah has spent much of his life in the ICU at Children’s, occasionally coming home for a few days.  But each time, his breathing difficulties and seizures have sent him back to the hospital.

This is not a sexy campaign; it’s about subsidizing rent, car payments and insurance, gas back & forth to the hospital, and cell phones so the parents can stay in touch with each other and with us.  Later, depending on the level of Illale Jeremiah’s disabilities, they will need specialized equipment for him.

Three different nurses came up to tell me how much they love this family while I visited Jeremiah and his mom at the hospital a couple of days ago.   They are so very special, so appreciative of the help and so worried about their baby.  While I visited, Jeremiah batted at his oxygen mask (he clearly hates it and tries to get it off every chance he gets).   His mom, smiling away, told me that he started laughing! Jeremiah’s dad finally received his Green Card (following a 2 year glitch with a single digit) and just recently started a job in a Boulder factory.  But it’s an entry level job and will not cover their basic expenses.  They need our help.

We, too, were refugees. Like Concenta and William, our ancestors also walked out of Africa — on foot.   

Please be generous and please share on social media.  Click here to help Illale Jeremiah and his family. 

“Illale” means “Gratitude.”  Please Jump In For Jeremiah!