Helping Afghan refugees via faith based organizations and NGOs

This article provides website links to help people who want to donate to the Afghan relief efforts or for volunteers who want to help in other ways.

Here's how you can help people fleeing violence in Afghanistan

NGO's - non-governmental organization (NGO), as its name suggests, exists independently from government oversight, though it may receive government funding. Their missions tend to be broader in scope and more global, supporting health initiatives and crises, education, economics, infrastructure, women and children’s rights and social problems around the world. One NGO with operations in Afghanistan is the International Rescue Committee. 

How to help Afghans arriving in the US after fleeing the Taliban

Echo report published in Religion News Service by Emily McFarlan Miller.

Also, this report published in Courier Post*, in south New Jersey: "Catholic Charities USA has a link on its national website for donations specifically for Afghan refugees and says, Y'our gift supports our agencies as they welcome vulnerable Afghan refugees resettling through the Special Immigrant Visa Program. They helped the U.S. military for 20 years and now it is our opportunity to help them and their families. Services include legal assistance, translation, childcare and other essential services'.”

Catholic Charities, which operates worldwide and in South Jersey, typically works with refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants as they acclimate to life in the U.S. It was not immediately known whether they planned to assist Afghan refugees locally. 

Here are a few important other faith-based organizations working with Afghans both overseas and arriving in the U.S. and some ways you can help them.

(Religion News Service - RNS) — As the United States planned its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, faith-based refugee resettlement organizations led calls for the evacuation of Afghan allies whose lives may be endangered by the country’s new Taliban regime.

Now, as the U.S. continues its evacuations of American citizens and Afghans who have worked for the U.S. over the past 20 years, those organizations are leading efforts to help Afghans settle into the country.

And many Americans are looking for ways to help their new neighbors.

“We are overwhelmed at the support of our community! We have never seen this scale of love, generosity and support in World Relief’s history,” said James Misner, senior vice president of strategic engagement for World Relief, one of the nine agencies contracted with the U.S. government to resettle refugees in the country.

“In recent years refugees and immigrants have been politicized. Right now there is broad base and bipartisan support to help our Afghan allies — get them out and get them here.”

Here are a few of the faith-based organizations working with Afghans both overseas and arriving in the U.S. and some ways you can help them.

Bethany Christian Services

Bethany Christian Services, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has welcomed and supported more than 250 Afghan refugees since 2001, mostly in western Michigan and eastern Pennsylvania, according to its website.

Churches or individuals in its resettlement areas (including Grand Rapids, Holland and Kalamazoo in Michigan or Philadelphia, Allentown and Lancaster in Pennsylvania) can contact their local Bethany offices to co-sponsor a newly arrived Afghan family and help them settle into their new homes. Volunteers also can assemble welcome baskets, which can include:

• Kitchen tools and utensils
• Hygiene items
• Sheets and blankets
• School supplies
• Gift cards to places such as Walmart or Target
• A personal note welcoming refugees to their new home

Anyone can make a financial donation to help Bethany provide those needed items to refugees on its website.

Church World Service,  is another agency working in partnership with the U.S. government to resettle refugees, has welcomed more than 7,000 Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients and their families since 2009, according to its website.

CWS has issued an emergency appeal to support Afghans now arriving in the U.S., asking for $700,000, in financial support to offer transportation, food and other emergency support and up to $450,000 in in-kind housing support.

Monetary donations can be made online or mailed to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515 (designated to Protect Our Afghan Allies). Those interested in sponsoring a family arriving in their community or providing in-kind support — including landlords able to rent housing to new arrivals — can fill out a form online or email refugeewelcome@cwsglobal.org.

CWS has also compiled sample messages urging lawmakers to protect Afghans seeking safety on its website that can be shared on social media or sent to lawmakers.

Episcopal Migration Ministries

The refugee resettlement and migration ministry of the Episcopal Church, is another one of the agencies working in partnership with the U.S. government to resettle Afghan allies.

Its greatest need is housing assistance, and it is accepting financial donations for housing and other basic needs both online and by mail at DFMS-Protestant Episcopal Church US, P.O. Box 958983, St. Louis, MO 63195 (designated to Episcopal Migration Ministries and Afghan allies).

Individuals and congregations can also fill out a form online for more information about volunteer opportunities through one of Episcopal Migration Ministry’s partners across the country, attend an informational webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday (Aug. 27) or use the Episcopal Church’s online tool to easily email their senators and representatives to continue advocating for evacuating and resettling Afghan refugees.

HIAS

Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, is another agency working in partnership with the U.S. government to resettle refugees, has also identified housing as its greatest need.

Those able to provide temporary or permanent housing or to support Afghan families in their communities in another way can fill out a form on the HIAS website or reach out to one of its partners across the country. It is also working with Airbnb to connect displaced Afghans with people who have space to share.

The organization has created an email form to contact the White House and sample email texts for contacting lawmakers for those who want to advocate for continued evacuations from Afghanistan.

And those who want to contribute money to help provide food, housing assistance, job training, gender-based violence counseling and other critical goods and services can donate on HIAS’ website.

Islamic Relief USA

Islamic Relief USA has been offering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan for 20 years, according to its website.

Its staff in Afghanistan has identified Kabul, Balkh, Herat and Nangarhar provinces as areas in need of immediate support. It is distributing water storage units and hygiene kits for displaced families; food; essential items such as cooking pots, utensils, pots, soaps and detergents, solar-powered lamps and towels; and family-sized emergency tents.

It is accepting financial donations to support those efforts on its website.

Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh

Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh is working with several local groups to prepare for Afghan refugees, according to local news reports.

Pittsburgh is one of the cities receiving an influx of Afghans arriving in the U.S. with SIVs, according to JFCS, and the organization has set up a United Way fund to help them build new lives in the country. It also is looking for donations of furniture, gift cards, groceries and other needs for specific families on its website, as well as volunteers to help families with transportation, apartment set-up and mentorship.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, another agency working in partnership with the U.S. government to resettle refugees, has compiled a number of resources on its website for those looking for more information about the situation in Afghanistan.

For those interested in getting involved, LIRS is calling for volunteers to help support Afghans arriving in the U.S. by offering airport pickups and apartment set-ups and by bringing meals to individuals and families. Sign up on the LIRS website to help Afghans currently arriving in Seattle and Tacoma in Washington; Houston and Fort Worth in Texas; and the Washington, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland area or to be placed on a standby list should they arrive in other locations.

LIRS is also collecting financial contributions for its Neighbors in Need: Afghan Allies Fund, which provides food, housing assistance, clothing and other basic supplies for newly arrived Afghans.

And it has set up an online tool that allows users to easily email their senators and representatives, as well as the White House, to express support for continued evacuations and other protections for Afghan allies.

World Relief

World Relief has shared information about the situation in Afghanistan, as well as ways to volunteer, advocate and give on its website.

Those wishing to join World Relief’s global network of over 95,000 volunteers can reach out to the office nearest them. Specifically, offices receiving a large number of Afghans, including Sacramento, California, need donations of furniture and other household items to prepare apartments, families willing to open their homes temporarily until housing is available and landlords willing to rent apartments to Afghans arriving without a credit history.

Those interested in advocating can email lawmakers through World Relief’s website, urging them to “expand and expedite life-saving refugee protections for Afghans fleeing violence and persecution.”

Those able to give can make a one-time or monthly donation online or purchase items on World Relief’s Amazon wishlist.

*The Courier Post also shared that The American Legion Post 372, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, is accepting donations towards the Joint Base effort, which will assist military members and Afghan refugees. Items requested are bottled water, energy drinks, snacks (nuts, trail mix, beef jerky), instant coffee, diapers, baby wipes, travel-size toothbrushes and toothpaste, and more. Items can be dropped off at the American Legion Post 372,1532 Martin Ave., Cherry Hill from noon to 9 p.m.

Donald Trump tweets correlate with hate crimes

https://religionnews.com/2018/07/17/researchers-find-link-between-trump-tweets-and-spike-in-anti-muslim-hate/

Religion News Service echo by Emily McFarlan Miller
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3149103

Researchers find link between Trump tweets and spike in anti-Muslim hate

(RNS) — It may be a law of nature: President Trump tweets something about Islam. Anti-Muslim hate crimes follow.

That’s according to a working paper by University of Warwick researchers Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz.

Their conclusions correspond with anecdotal reports collected by Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups, too.

“Whether it’s a tweet or whether it’s in a policy (Trump is) introducing, or if it’s in a policy someone in his administration is introducing, I think it all comes together to create this kind of environment where targeting Muslims is acceptable or has become acceptable,” said Madihha Ahussain, special counsel for anti-Muslim bigotry at Muslim Advocates.

Müller and Schwarz examined publicly accessible data such as the weekly number of anti-Muslim hate crimes recorded by the FBI in their paper, “Making America Hate Again? Twitter and Hate Crime Under Trump.”

The data showed a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes since the start of Trump’s presidential campaign, concentrated in counties with high Twitter usage. It also showed a correlation between the number of Trump’s tweets in a given week that used keywords related to Islam and the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes that followed. 

The researchers were curious whether what happens online motivates action offline. While people seemed to agree hateful rhetoric on social media was dangerous, Schwarz said, they were “surprised nobody had ever looked at it.”

But, Schwarz added, Trump shouldn’t get all the blame.

“Our idea is not basically that it’s just Donald Trump’s individual tweets that are causing this entire effect,” he said. “His tweets are widely shared, the news are discussing it and a lot of people are just exposed to this kind of rhetoric. This is just spreading through social media and in particular Twitter.”

Social media’s ability to deluge users with negative sentiments may push people “who were already on the edge” to commit hate crimes, according to the researcher.

And it’s happening beyond the United States.

Müller and Schwarz, who are German, previously wrote a study looking at Facebook posts by right-wing political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and how it may be associated with anti-refugee crime in Germany.

The “social media effect” is the same, and it vanished with internet outages in certain areas or Facebook outages that impacted the whole country, according to Schwarz.

“It shows that the mechanism we are thinking about, the effect we observe, is not specific to a particular country, and it’s not specific to an individual person,” he said.

“So far it looks like this polarizing effect of social media might be happening independent of the country, basically of the setting, and independent of the minority groups.”

BuzzFeed News also recently analyzed the way many “sensationalized, misleading, or outright false reports about Muslim communities” are spread online between Europe and North America.

Despite their research, Schwarz said he and his colleague were “torn” about possible solutions. Leaving it up to private companies like Facebook to determine what is “acceptable” is worrying, as are laws like Germany’s that fine networks up to $60 million for each post they decline to remove that is deemed hate speech.

Turning off the internet may help, he joked, but that’s not realistic.

Muslim Advocates published a 2014 report titled “Click Here to End Hate” looking at ways to combat anti-Muslim bigotry online. 

Even as the authors were writing it, Ahussain said, the organization knew it quickly would become outdated as social media platforms and their use evolved.

But, she said, they hoped it would encourage people to report content they thought violated those platforms’ terms of service and, in calling for greater accountability, demonstrate why it’s important. The group has become more diligent about holding accountable platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, too, she said.

“It’s not just about the president,” Ahussain said. “We don’t know that the president will ever be suspended from any of these platforms, but what the conversation should be about is how do we monitor and hold accountable the people who are sharing this type of hatred and bigotry and encouraging violence on the platform?”

After communicating with Twitter about far-right group Britain First’s use of the Twitter platform, she said, Muslim Advocates was notified the platform had suspended the accounts of leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen. Trump had infamously retweeted inflammatory anti-Muslim videos posted by Fransen.

In May, Facebook also agreed to a civil rights audit that Muslim Advocates had asked for, Ahussain said.

“They are under a lot of pressure right now, and it seems as the pressure mounts, they’re more likely to try to come up with strategies that will be responsive to those concerns,” she said, “but I think we have a long way to go.”