Help make challenging times a little less challenging

Each morning, Angela, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student, wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to care for her partner, who recently resumed full-time work after he was laid off from his plumbing job due to COVID-19. She helps get him ready for work and cancer treatment. Then she homeschools her son, teaches an online class for UNL and tries to find some time in the day to work on her doctoral dissertation proposal.

Angela has applied for emergency assistance wherever she can, and her partner has applied for unemployment insurance, but it has not come through yet. In the interim, she has had to pause her mortgage and a loan payment and says she often feels at her wits’ end.

“I’m just at that edge all the time,” she said. “And it affects my health.”

Angela recently received assistance from the University of Nebraska Emergency Assistance Fund, which she said she used to pay rent and buy healthy groceries. It gave her a breather, for which she is grateful.

The University of Nebraska Emergency Assistance Fund was established last year to enable the university to provide financial help to students and employees impacted by record flooding across the state.

This year, it has served as a lifeline to those who have suddenly found themselves facing financial hardship due to COVID-19.

To date, nearly 215 individuals, such as Angela, have received assistance to help pay for food and toiletries, or mounting bills.

You can help make critical support available to members of the NU family by providing immediate support to those in need. Here’s how.