Five years after terrorists struck the Pentagon and World Trade Center, a fund established to help those affected by the attack continues to provide millions in aid — but managers have started planning to phase out its activities. Having helped more than 1,000 people and dispensed nearly 80 percent of the $24 million raised to help victims recover, the Survivor’s Fund will end its operations on March 31, 2008.
Daniel Mayers, chair of the Governance Board for the Fund, said planning began last year for the project’s final phase, including determining the neediest remaining cases. Between now and March 2008, the fund will disburse most of the remaining $4 million.
“We are planning such that those cases won’t be left out without help,” Mayers said.
Mayers noted that the majority of funds came in the first three months after the 2001 attack, with other mostly corporate donations being received on each anniversary thereafter. Though fund organizers expected it to operate for five to seven years, Mayers was surprised by the length of time it took many survivors to experience problems that needed help.
“This delayed reaction taught us you didn’t see all of your cases in the first few months,” he said.
Fund administrators were also surprised that survivors often needed social services and counseling as much as funds — another surprise, Mayers said.
When the fund was established, planners took a broad view of who was impacted by the events and pledged to stay with those it helped even if it took years. For American Airlines flight attendant Linda Souder, the flexibility and extended timeframes built into the fund helped changed her life.
“I had spent years going from one organization to another being told I wasn’t a survivor and that nobody could or would help me,” Souder told The Examiner.
She had colleagues on the flight that struck the Pentagon and after the tragedy suffered stress-related nightmares, headaches and other job-related problems.
“It was debilitating and didn’t get any better as the years after 9/11 passed,” she explained.
Only when she walked into North Virginia Family Service and was evaluated by a counselor did she learn that she, too, was a “victim” of the terrorists and that there was a fund, the 9/11 Survivor’s Fund, that could offer her help.
“It changed my life. I have no doubt,” Souder said.
Every flight Souder takes still brings back painful memories of that day and fears of a new terrorist attack. But hours of professional therapy from specially trained socialworkers supported by the fund helped ease her anxiety and made it possible for her to cope again with the flying public and her job.
The fund also gave her the chance to begin a new chapter in her life — one that didn’t involve flying.
“I had been a nurse more than 20 years ago, but I needed to get these new skills. The fund helped to support me during this transition in my life,” she said.
With the fund’s financial and emotional assistance, she was been able to shift toward nursing. Souder said she hoped to eventually cut her hours in the air by as much as 50 percent.
“None of this would have ever been possible without the Survivor’s Fund. I am so very grateful to them,” she said.
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