BOISE — It's been three and a half weeks since tragedy tore through a Boise apartment complex.
Nine people were stabbed at the Wylie Street Station Apartments: six children and three adults, all refugees. The senseless, horrific act not only devastated the refugee community - but the entire region.
Boise children among 9 victims in mass stabbing at State Street apartments
Since then, donations to the victims and their families have been pouring in. KTVB spoke with the organization spearheading those efforts - as well as other agencies lending their services - to check in on the latest updates.
Folks from all over are stepping up in a big way; people and businesses from all over the world have donated more than $300,000 to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to help the families impacted by this tragedy.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you to everybody who's given. All of that is being held for the families," IRC Executive Director Julianne Donnelly Tzul said.
Since this unimaginable tragedy struck, the IRC in Boise has been on the ground providing services and support to families at the Wylie Street Station Apartments - whether they were physically and directly impacted, witnesses, or live there.
"We've been really fortunate to have a lot of hands help us both here physically and at our national level," Donnelly Tzul added.
IRC staff has been putting in a lot of time and working diligently, and Donnelly Tzul says rather than tapping into donated funds from the community to pay staff, they received permission from existing funders to cover their time.
The IRC provided resources to the Boise office, sending a colleague from Dallas who's on the ground doing logistical work, point people, and an expert to help with the budgeting process. Therefore, they haven't had to tap into donations from the public for those resources.
The organization has taken the reins on managing donations and is trying to cover everything from mental health services to travel to housing and child care.
"Everything we can cover we will - especially medical care," Donnelly Tzul said.
Donnelly Tzul says medical expenses - now and in the future - are the top priority for donation funds.
"We've begun meeting with hospital system representatives. That's going to be a process because there's three different hospital systems involved and each of those systems often has separate billing units for each piece of service," Donnelly Tzul said, "We basically need to work with each of those streams of billing folks to see what is covered by existing insurance, what is not, where do we fill in and then what's left."
Vigil for victims of mass stabbing in Boise
Many impacted by this mass stabbing are moving out of the apartment complex with the help of different organizations and volunteers, as well as the management at Wylie Street Station.
"Several are in transition in terms of moving from temporary housing to long-term housing. Several are figuring out what long-term housing will be," Donnelly Tzul told KTVB.
Forty community organizations and entities meet weekly to check in and plan how to forge ahead - from police to child care businesses, from the school district to nonprofits.
At this point, group therapy at the complex is being donated, with self-defense classes in the works.
"That sense of anxiety or risk is still palpable, so we put out a call asking for anyone who might be interested in teaching self-defense classes," Donnelly Tzul said. "We've gotten an interested entity and are now working to schedule that, hopefully so we can combine self-defense and group mental health conversations. I think those two things together have the potential to help people feel like they have more power over their day-to-day lives."
Individual therapy is either being covered by Medicaid, covered by donations, or fully donated.
"There's a number of mental health services that have already got really good expertise in working with refugees that have said we want to make sure to be here and helping: Tidwell Social Services and Brighter Future Health are both working to put together on-site mental health classes that are group classes at Wylie," Donnelly Tzul added.
One organization in particular - owned by a refugee from Iraq - has worked with some of the victims and witnesses for years.
"They are still suffering from the trauma," K A Health Services owner Khalid Ameria said. "It is not easy."
K A Health Services is helping four families move and providing therapy. Ameri says every day is different, but those impacted are in some stage of recovery.
"Our hope is to recover not only to heal from the wound but emotionally and psychologically because this is more effective than the wound itself," Ameri said. "Mainly their faith and the support from the community help a lot."
"Their communities around them are also helping a lot in just establishing new rhythms of life: what does a day feel like, how do we try to bring a sense of normal back to this experience - which is really hard but definitely possible," Donnelly Tzul added.
There have been several fundraisers - many still ongoing - throughout the Treasure Valley to help victims. Boise Rock School is hosting a fundraiser with live music and a silent auction to help raise money for these families. One-hundred percent of the proceeds are going to the IRC. Entrance is a suggested donation of $20. The event is from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Linen Building Thursday night.
Not a lot of information is being released on victims' medical conditions at the request of the families. We don't know the level of injuries or how many victims need surgery at this time, but the IRC says at least one person is still in the hospital.
