How Our Community Can Sponsor a Refugee Family
Like many of you we're grateful to live where we are not just here in our community at Strathmore at Bel Pre, but here in the United States where we can enjoy so many invaluable freedoms and such incredible plenty. Being so blessed, our hearts go out to those who haven't been able to enjoy the same opportunities, or who have been uprooted from friends and family and lives they have known and forced to start over in unfamiliar places surrounded by unfamiliar people as many of our ancestors did. And while there are sadly always refugees needing to seek asylum here or elsewhere, there's of course a tremendous number of refugees right now fleeing the sad circumstances in Afghanistan, and coming to the U.S. and elsewhere, with more than fifty thousand refugees currently being processed through military bases across the country, and thousands more waiting to arrive. These refugees are being processed by the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, but they depend on private organizations to partner with them to assist with helping these new arrivals get back on their feet, and this is where we can help!
One of these organizations is LIRS, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Although they are religiously based, the work they do is not, and all are welcome to help. Though there are many opportunities to assist as individuals (see https://www.lirs.org/help our afghan allies/), they are also looking for communities of all kinds to co sponsor refugee families with them. This is a more significant commitment, with interested communities being asked to commit to at least a year of helping a family with various needs and with navigating the various administrative processes they need to get established, and also a commitment to raise a modest amount of money to help with initial expenses between $3,000 and $7,000.
Would you be interested in giving something back in this way, and helping welcome potential new Americans to our area? If you'd like to volunteer, or just ask for more details, please contact me at korossy.arpad@gmail.com! Thank you!