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.

Checking in: About the status of asylum seekers

Echo report published in the Associated Press, by Elliot Spagat and Julie Watson:

What is the difference between an asylum seeker, a migrant and an immigrant?  See story published on Preemptive Love here.

“I don’t want to face again everything I already faced,” Maria exclaimed. Maria is a 30-year-old mother of two young children, who fled from Honduras after her family’s lives had been threatened by gangs..

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (AP) — The President Biden administration has quietly tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. instead of being rapidly expelled from the country under federal pandemic-related powers that block people from seeking asylum.

The groups will determine who is most vulnerable in Mexico, and their criteria has not been made public. It comes as large numbers of people are crossing the southern border and as the government faces intensifying pressure to lift the public health powers instituted by former President Donald Trump and kept in place by President Joe Biden during the coronavirus pandemic.

Several members of the consortium spoke to The Associated Press about the criteria and provided details of the system that have not been previously reported. The government is aiming to admit to the country up to 250 asylum-seekers a day who are referred by the groups and is agreeing to that system only until July 31. By then, the consortium hopes the Biden administration will have lifted the public health rules, though the government has not committed to that.

So far, a total of nearly 800 asylum-seekers have been let in since May 3, and members of the consortium say there is already more demand than they can meet.

The groups have not been publicly identified except for the International Rescue Committee, a global relief organization. The others are London-based Save the Children; two U.S.-based organizations, HIAS and Kids in Need of Defense; and two Mexico-based organizations, Asylum Access and the Institute for Women in Migration, according to two people with direct knowledge who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not intended for public release.

Asylum Access, which provides services to people seeing asylum in Mexico, characterized its role as minimal.

The effort started in El Paso, Texas, and is expanding to Nogales, Arizona.

A similar but separate mechanism led by the American Civil Liberties Union began in late March and allows 35 families a day into the United States at places along the border. It has no end date.

The twin tracks are described by participating organizations as an imperfect transition from so-called Title 42 authority, named for a section of an obscure 1944, public health law that Trump used in March 2020, to effectively end asylum at the Mexican border. 

As the COVID-19 vaccination rates are rising, Biden is finding it increasingly difficult to justify the expulsions on public health grounds and faces demands to end it from the U.N. refugee agency, and members of his own party and administration.

The Homeland Security Department said in a statement that its efforts involve “close coordination with international and non-governmental organizations in Mexico” to identify vulnerable people using government criteria and that it has final say on who gets in. It described its work with the groups as fluid and said it hasn’t publicly identified them to avoid giving them exposure.

Some consortium members are concerned that going public may cause their offices in Mexico to be mobbed by asylum-seekers, overwhelming their tiny staffs and exposing them to potential threats and physical attacks from extortionists and other criminals.

Critics of the new selection processes say too much power is vested in a small number of organizations and that the effort is shrouded in secrecy without a clear explanation of how the groups were chosen. Critics also say there are no assurances that the most vulnerable or deserving migrants will be chosen to seek asylum.

The consortium was formed after the U.S. government asked the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ office in Mexico for the names of organizations with deep experience and capacity in Mexico, said Sibylla Brodzinsky, a spokeswoman for the U.N. office.

“We’ve had long relationships with them and they’re trusted partners,” she said.

The groups say they are merely streamlining the process but that the vulnerable migrants’ cases can come from anywhere.

In Nogales, Arizona, the International Rescue Committee is connecting to migrants via social media and smartphones to find candidates. It plans to refer up to 600 people a month to U.S. officials, said Raymundo Tamayo, the group’s director in Mexico.

Special consideration is being given to people who have been in Mexico a long time, are in need of acute medical attention or who have disabilities, are members of the LGBTQ community or are non-Spanish speakers, though each case is being weighed on its unique circumstances, Tamayo said.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said advocacy groups are in “a very difficult position because they need to essentially rank the desperation” of people, but he insisted it was temporary. The government, he said, “cannot farm out the asylum system.”

Migration experts not involved in the process have questioned how the groups determine who is eligible.

“It has been murky,” said Jessica Bolter, an analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute who believes the administration is trying to quietly be humane without encouraging more people to come, a balancing act she doubts will succeed.

“Setting out clear and accurate information about how and who might get in might lead to fewer migrants making the trip, so there’s not this game of chance that kind of seems to be in place right now,” Bolter said.

U.S. border authorities recorded the highest number of encounters with migrants in more than 20 years in April, though many were repeat crossers who had previously been expelled from the country. The number of children crossing the border alone also is hovering at all-time highs.

Against that backdrop, some advocates are seeing the makings of the “humane” asylum system that Biden promised during his campaign. Details have been elusive, with administration officials saying they need time.

Susana Coreas, who fled El Salvador, was among those identified as vulnerable and allowed into the United States last month. Coreas spent more than a year in Ciudad Juarez waiting to apply for asylum but was barred by the public health order.

She and other transgender women refurbished an abandoned hotel to have a safe place to stay after they felt uncomfortable at a number of shelters in the rough Mexican city.

But they continued to have problems. One woman had a knife pointed at her. Another had a gun pulled on her.

“There was so much anxiety,” Coreas said. “I now feel at peace.”