NBARC has awakened from its Covid-induced somnolence! The coalition of congregations is excited to be preparing to welcome an Afghan family that has fled the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, and has landed in the U.S. and spent its first month or so living among hundreds of others on an army base. Our goal is to welcome these refugees warmly to our community, to give them financial support until they can transition to work and independence, and to help them navigate a totally new environment and culture.
Our interfaith coalition of six Newton and Brookline congregations, of which FUUSN is one, will be one of a number teams doing this work under the umbrella of the Jewish Community Relations Council and Catholic Charities of Boston. Other resettlement agencies in other locations in Massachusetts and around the country are organizing similar volunteer support teams for these displaced Afghan families.
We don’t yet have an identified family, but that could happen any day now. Preparing is challenging, without knowing how large a family to expect, what the children’s ages are, whether their backgrounds are urban or rural, whether any family members speak English.
But at this point, we have committed to renting a 3-bedroom apartment in Brookline for the family, starting on November 1 and extending for the next 8 months, until the end of the school year. And we have found two very capable volunteers to lead the family’s volunteer support team.
The other two apartments in the 3-decker will house two other Afghan families, supported by teams from other congregations; we hope the families will become a small mutual support community of their own. The apartment is across the street from a good elementary school.
As you have seen from my recent email, we are now recruiting other volunteers for various areas of assistance for the family, including giving rides, child care, donations of furnishings for the apartment, and help with navigating all the tasks of daily living in this culture that’s probably very foreign-to-them.
We are also raising funds to help support this project. We estimate that our expenses could run as high as $30,000, when rent, utilities, food, clothing and furnishings that aren’t donated are all added up. Although we have some money in the bank from previous fund-raising, we need to raise an additional substantial sum to be able to support this family until they can get on their own feet.
As Jenny, my co-chair of the NBARC steering committee reminds us frequently, just think about how it would feel to be suddenly whisked away from your home and deposited in Kabul, having left most of your belongings behind, knowing little of the culture or the language, or even where you’ll live, how to buy food, how you will support yourself. Wouldn’t you be relieved to receive a warm welcome from a small team of friendly people who are prepared to help you settle in and find your way?
Please give generously today to support our project and help us extend hospitality to the stranger in need.
You may make your check payable to “Newton-Brookline Asylum Resettlement Fund.” Or you can go to NBARC’s website to donate by credit card or PayPal. You’ll find instructions at https://www.nb-arc.com/donate.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THIS VITAL WORK.
Bobbie Sproat & Sandra Mahaniah, FUUSN’s representatives on NBARC steering committee