Karidat clientele highest in 10 years

The Karidat Social Service has reported that recipients receiving services out of the non-profit charitable institution for its calendar year 2007 has been the highest ever in ten years.

Executive director Angie V. Leon Guerrero said Karidat’s clientele has more than doubled from 2,051 individuals 10 years ago to 4,515 individuals for calendar year 2007.

Karidat provides five different kinds of services to the community. Last year, Karidat assisted 117 individuals through its Victims of Crime Advocacy Program; 1,322 individuals through its Victim Hotline; admitted 256 individuals to its Guma Esperansa; registered 1,074 in its House of Manhoben; and provided emergency food and shelter through its family services program to 1,746 individuals.

According to Leon Guerrero, need for their services have “really gone up this year because of the economic crisis. We have many people losing their jobs, many people with reduced hours and that effects the incomes of families.”

The Karidat Social Service, which works with an annual budget of $890,386, says assistance from the agency is “very limited.”

With its annual budget last calendar year, the non-profit organization was expected to provide assistance to its 4,515 clients.

“This is not enough because we have cases where they [Karidat clients] stay in the shelter for months at a time. With that, we have to feed them, bathe them, and provide medical assistance to them when they get sick.”

Leon Guerrero said that Karidat does not receive a penny from the Compact Impact Funds although more than one third of the agency’s clients are from the Freely Associated States.

The Compact Impact Funds are provided to certain U.S. jurisdictions to help offset the costs associated with migration from the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau under the Compacts of Free Association.

Compact Impact funds totaling $30 million are divided annually among Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas. The program started in 2004 and will continue through 2008.

Leon Guerrero said the agency has tried to ask the government for some of the funds in the past, but “they said that they do not want to promote dependency on welfare assistance. So we don’t get a penny from the Compact Impact Funds.”

Leon Guerrero said she never agreed to that decision, “We provide services to them after all. I think the funds should have been divided fairly.”

She added that only 11 percent of Karidat’s annual budget comes from the local government, “the rest comes from federal grants. But we try to make the most out of what we have available in our jurisdiction.”

“It’s a big challenge everyday. There are new problems and new issues to confront. We can really do more for these people if we had more funding,” Leon Guerrero said.