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Holland Noon Rotary and the Rotary After Hours Club are partnered with Central Park Reformed Church for the purpose of settling an Afghan Refugee family. The family arrived at Ford Airport in Grand Rapids on January 26; therefore, we are moving into our third month of refugee resettlement. The family is comprised of a Dad and Mom, two sisters in their thirties, and a son in his late teens. The son speaks fairly good English, so we have not made use of a translator.
A big accomplishment of the past month has been moving the family from temporary housing to permanent housing in the City of Holland. As we know, housing particularly at the lower income levels is a challenge in our community, so we are thankful that permanent housing has been secured. A Rotarian Carol Swart worked with Elizabeth Maynard from Central Park Reformed Church to secure many of the furnishings for the house. A big thank you to Rotary and the church for supplying so many denotations that are in good condition.
The entire family is enrolled in English classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, so the entire family is improving in English. We don’t have to do so many hand motions with them at this point. A big challenge for this month and next month is the sheer number of medical appointments that require drivers and transportation. Thanks to the efforts of Rotarians and church members we are succeeding in getting family members to all of their appointments.
In conjunction with Bethany Christian Services and the Match Grant program, the family is receiving direction and guidance for finding jobs, particularly for the three adult children. Our goal is to have family members employed by the end of June, and our hope is that this can happen sooner. We are taking the time to allow family members to acquire basic English skills.
We should mention that refugee resettlement is administered through the United States State Department, and the department contracts with local resettlement agencies around the United States. Our partnership is with Bethany Christian Services. They coordinate the social service safety net such as medical care, food subsidies, and rental assistance. Our job as Rotarians and church partners is to be the friendly person on the ground helping them to negotiate the community of Holland. I may be editorializing, but this is a government program that truly works because the government provides the funds, but the government then relies on us, the citizens, through our social networks to knit the refugees into the fabric of our community.
Of course, with the Ukrainian crisis every week, we have an additional 150,000 refugees in the world. And this is part of eighty-five million refugees world-wide recognized by the United Nations.
Yet we are thankful for the 15-20 volunteers from the Holland Rotary Clubs and Central Park Reformed Church who have come together to make a difference in the life of one Afghan refugee family.
David Beattie Kent Fry
Co-coordinators of the Afghan Refugee Project
for Central Park Reformed Church and Holland Rotary Clubs