Neighbors Helping Neighbors with small but critical repairs

Published 9:48 am Thursday, March 9, 2023

It’s the little things in life that tend to pile up into larger obstacles when they cannot be fixed. 

Theodora West and her husband had lived in their Eatonton home for 19 years until he passed away five months ago. He died of cancer, she says, and both of them were tied to oxygen tanks. She says the repairs just piled up.

”He wasn’t in the best of health but he did what he could,” Theodora told us.

She is a former corrections officer, who lives alone, has her own bout with cancer, walks with a cane and sleeps with a CPAP machine. 

But, her kitchen needed shelves and the floor was sagging. The gutters were leaking and there were no steps to the back porch. Roofline repairs were required to keep animals and bats out. The toilet needed replacing. 

“Those were the big things that I was really, really concerned about,” Theodora said.

Then she contacted Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a local non-profit organization whose mission is to provide hope for the future by providing a hand-up, not a hand-out. 

There are many people in Putnam and Greene Counties who live in the same situation as Theodora. Through no fault of their own, they don’t have the skill or physical ability to make repairs and there is no money to hire someone else to do them.

Those in need apply to NHN, listing specific needed repairs. Applications are vetted and, if approved, Neighbors Helping Neighbors hires contractors to make the repairs.

Theodora is very grateful for the work at her home.

“They have done several things,” she says. “They truly have been a blessing to me.”

NHN focuses on one time critical needs – home repairs, repairing or replacing a primary vehicle for families, and the Beds for Kidz program. NHN primarily serves low-income families, older adults, children, single working mothers and their children, military veterans, and developmentally and/or physically challenged individuals in Greene and Putnam Counties. 

Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization. 100% of all donations go directly to projects for those in need. For more information, to become a member, or to donate, go to www.nhnga.org.