Non-profit lends helping hand after fire burns clothes
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — SIMDEL Children's Education Ministry is a Sioux Falls non-profit that supports educational needs of primary school students in Togo, West Africa.
The organization was planning on sending clothes there until a fire broke out in the garage they were being stored in. The clothes were a total loss, but a different non-profit has given SIMDEL some newfound hope.
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About two weeks ago, we introduced you to Simplice and Delphine Noutsougan of SIMDEL Children's Education Ministry, not long after a structure fire at a 12-unit garage at 57th Street and Mac Arthur Lane in Sioux Falls destroyed clothes that were about a month away from being sent to Togo.
'When we went outside and we saw the garage burning, I saw Delphine kind of collapse, lay down on the floor and start crying because we thought about those children,' Simplice Noutsougan said.
The Noutsougans asked for help through a GoFundMe, which received plenty of donations. The fundraiser also caught the attention of Craig Severtson, the founder of Helping Kids Round First, a non-profit in Flandreau.
'There was a message left on GoFundMe telling them that we can probably give all the clothes you need from our warehouses because that's part of what we do,' Severtson said.
The organization sends items like food, medical equipment, sporting goods and clothes to countries in Central America, but they also serve Africa.
'There was a common connection, so it made the call easy,' Severtson said.
Severtson estimates there's somewhere between 7,000-8,000 pounds of clothes and shoes Helping Kids Round First donated. All of it will be sent to Togo.
'I don't even know how to express our joys, our happiness,' Simplice Noutsougan said.
'How this all works, you see a need and you fill it. We know what they're going through, and we've been doing it a long time,' Severtson said.
It's something that will make a big difference for children in Togo.
'What they're giving now is like 10 times of what we had before,' Simplice Noutsougan said.
SIMDEL will spend some time sorting through all the clothes and hopes to ship them by the middle of March. The non-profit also raises money for school supplies in Togo.
To learn more about the organization's work, you can attend an event SIMDEL is hosting on April 6. You can find additional information about that here.
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