Interactive Map: Welcoming Afghans Across America (And the World)

Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last August, tens of thousands of Afghans have been evacuated to the U.S. in pursuit of safety from Taliban rule.

The challenges of relocating and resettling families who have had their lives uprooted — many fearing for the family and friends they had to leave behind — are immense. From securing affordable housing to navigating school enrollment to furnishing homes, helping Afghans rebuild their lives is an all-hands-on-deck effort.

Across the country — and beyond — communities large and small have stepped up to welcome and support newly arrived Afghans. From pizza parties to business coalitions, these aren’t rare stories. Instead, they illustrate the incredible scope of support for Afghans, offering a reminder of our capacity to welcome.

Explore our map of local welcome below. And if you have a story from your own community that we’ve missed, feel free to send it to us at digital@immigrationforum.org (if possible, please include any relevant links to local or national news coverage).

Alabama

Mike Edwards of Alabama, founder of Project Exodus Relief, has led a bipartisan effort to help aid Afghan allies still stuck in Afghanistan and has so far resettled 40 Afghan refugees. The organization is “in need of donations to help purchase flights, find housing and try to send food to help those who want to leave” to ramp up their efforts. (Erin Davis, WSFA 12 News)

Alaska

Sayed, a former interpreter who left Afghanistan weeks before the Taliban took over, is now a resident in Anchorage, Alaska — and a reception and placement coordinator for RAIS, helping new arrivals resettle. (Marc Lester, Anchorage Daily News)

Arizona

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced that his state welcomed its first group of Afghan refugees this week. (ABC 15)
Scottsdale, Arizona, immigration attorney Darius Amiri helped Afghan interpreter Zabi resettle in the U.S. this summer — and they finally met in person this week. (Shelle Jackson, KVOA)
Together with other faith groups, Phoenix-area Jewish leaders are working “to address the needs of Afghan refugees.” (Neetish Basnet, Arizona Republic)
Members of the Greater Phoenix Jewish community have donated clothing, household items, and money to Valley Beit Midrash’s Welcome Tent initiative, “which was created to fill in the ‘gaps’ left by the large service agencies for Afghan refugees.” (Nicole Raz, Jewish News)
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona has relaunched its Refugee Resettlement Services program, including placement and assistant efforts for Afghan evacuees. (Victoria Moses, Arizona Jewish Post)
With the help of his former colleague, an Air Force veteran, Hazem Amiry recently resettled in Tucson, Arizona. Members of the community are showing him a grand welcome: “An Air Force widow recently donated her husband’s car to the family, and a mechanic is fixing it up for free.” (FOX 10)
In Arizona, the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown recently hired more than 40 Afghan refugees and hosted a lunch to celebrate Nowruz, a public holiday in Afghanistan and throughout Central Asia marking the start of spring and a new year. (Claudia Rupcich, ABC 15)
In partnership with The International Rescue Committee, a coalition of “Arizona State students, Valley rotary clubs, and local businesses” helped to furnish an Afghan family’s new home in Phoenix on Saturday. (AZFamily Digital News)
Five young Afghan women shared their stories journeying from Kabul to Tempe, Arizona, after they got “an opportunity to study at Arizona State University as part of a resettlement program in partnership with the International Rescue Committee.” (Milken Institute)
Citing safety concerns, the Biden administration has authorized the completion of border barriers to close four wide gaps near Yuma, Arizona, per Anita Snow of the Associated Press.
As resettled Afghan allies in Arizona face challenges because of the uncertainty of their legal status, their communities are advocating for their permanent protection, as Mars Adema writes in an Arizona Republic op-ed.
Former Afghan translator Zabi of Tucson, Arizona, has been granted asylum — and wants eventually to join the Marines. (Colleen Sikora, 12 News)

Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas is expecting to welcome around 50 refugees over the next six months. (KHBS)
University of Harding students donate ‘welcome boxes’ for incoming Afghan refugees relocating to Arkansas. (Kendall Ashman, 40/29 News)
Law students at the University of Arkansas are partnering with the state’s branch of Catholic Charities to offer legal assistance to four Afghan refugees. (Chris Price, Arkansas Catholic)
Sacramento-based Asian Resources, Inc., founded by two former refugees, is providing an on-the-job training program by matching refugees like new Afghan arrivals with employers in the region. (Van Tieu, ABC10)
Basira Faizy narrowly escaped Afghanistan and now helps other refugees through her work at Catholic Charities of Arkansas. (Katie Zakrzewski, Arkansas Catholic)

California

In California’s East Bay, Jewish Family and Community Services hosted a fundraiser on Monday to help Afghan refugees and are calling for more volunteers. (Ella Sogomonian, KRON4)
Sacramento, California’s Elk Grove Unified School District “began offering culturally appropriate meals and setting aside rooms in many of its middle and high schools for prayer during Muslim holidays” in preparation for arriving Afghan students. (Diana Lambert, KQED)
Christine Nguyen and a dozen other members of Sacramento’s Vietnamese American community have written hundreds of letters to welcome arriving Afghan refugees. (John Bartell, ABC 10)
San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors “unanimously approved a comprehensive plan for Afghan refugee housing and resettlement Tuesday.” (Elizabeth Ireland, Times of San Diego)
At San Diego State University, Phi Kappa Psi fraternity members have raised more than $5,000 to help evacuees resettle in their new homes via a GoFundMe called “Helping Hands for Afghans.” (Jayne Yutig, The Daily Aztec)
San Diego Afghan Refugees Aid Group, a volunteer group of 100 members, is working tirelessly “to help Afghan refugees find affordable housing and community resources,” such as translations, school enrollment, grocery shopping and more. (KUSI News)
Jewish Family & Community Services in East Bay, California, recently helped an Afghan family find an apartment, enroll in school, and set up medical appointments. (Rachele Kanigel, J. The Jewish News of Northern California)
All 10 Mother’s Market & Kitchen locations in southern California “will offer customers the option of rounding up each purchase to the nearest dollar to donate to the International Rescue Committee (IRC),” to assist Afghan refugees. (Bridget Goldschmidt, Progressive Grocer)
Bethany Christian Services is asking for volunteers and financial assistance to resettle 50 Afghan refugees in Fresno, California. (Bill McEwen, GV Wire)
Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s Cafe in the Mission District, recently held an event raising “$53,850 for two leading organizations providing refugee assistance in the Bay Area: The Afghan Coalition and Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay.” (Lea Loeb, The Jewish News of Northern California)
In Sacramento, California, a new initiative called the American Network of Services for Afghanistan Refugees (ANSAR) will help Afghan families meet needs including housing and employment. (Chris Baker, ABC 10)
Kiki Nagy, a volunteer at Miry’s List, hosted a traditional Thanksgiving feast for an Afghan family of six in Los Angeles. (Natasha Chen, CNN)
Girl Scouts ages 5 to 15 in Poway, California, made 20 care baskets with toiletries for Afghan refugees. (Angela Brandt, Poway News Chieftain and Rancho Bernardo News Journal)
Bay Area communities and businesses have stepped up to provide Afghan refugees temporary homes, cultural and financial assistance, and home-cooked Afghan meals. (Mike Cerre, PBS News Hour)
Tim Stiven, a history teacher at San Diego’s Canyon Crest Academy, “has been raising money through a GoFundme page to support girls in Afghanistan who want to continue their schooling with the country under Taliban rule.” (Luke Harold, Del Mar Times)
UC Davis’s Refugee Interprofessional Community Engagement (RICE) initiative has been instrumental in creating a “cultural bridge to dozens of [Afghan] families.” (UC Davis Health)
The San Diego Afghan Refugees Aid Group, which helps with resettlement, integration, and job opportunities, held its second donation drive Sunday in anticipation of new Afghan arrivals. (Kate Morrissey, The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church in San Diego is sponsoring a collection of donations for Afghan refugees next week in partnership with Alliance for African Assistance. (Linda McIntosh, The San Diego Union-Tribune)
As part of another interfaith effort in Sonoma County, California, residents are helping two groups of recently resettled Afghans. (Nashelly Chavez, The Press Democrat)
The Santa Clarita Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will hold a collection drive tomorrow for Afghan refugees recently resettled in Santa Clarita, California, with a special demand for bikes and kettles. (Grace Halaby, KHTS Radio)
The Refugee Clinic at Valley Medical Center Lenzen in San Jose, California — founded during the Vietnam refugee crisis — is now taking care of hundreds of Afghan refugees, with more expected soon. (Len Ramirez, KPIX 5)
San Diego County resident Barbara Cummings, a volunteer with the “Helping El Cajon Refugees” Facebook Group, held a shoe donation drive on Sunday for Afghan families temporarily living in hotels. (Heather Hope, CBS News 8)
SLO4Home, a new official partner agency of Church World Service, hopes to raise $600,000 to help at least 10 Afghan families “connect with caring people and obtain basic necessities and services” to resettle in San Luis Obispo County, California. (The Tribune)
Cub Scout Pack 580 recently helped sort through donations of food, toys, and supplies for Afghan refugees resettling in Santa Clarita, California. (Trevor Morgan, The Signal)
A group of sponsors from the International Institute for Los Angeles helped Afghan college student Zahra Azizi and her family resettle into their new East Long Beach home. (Harry Saltzgaver, Press-Telegram/Grunion Gazette)
Bob Brunson in Marina, California, spearheaded efforts to create a sponsor circle of 11 neighbors to help Monir, who offered tech support to navy seals, bring his family to the U.S. to resettle. (Sara Rubin, Monterey County Weekly)
Notre Dame de Namur University’s Belmont campus in California is offering about three dozen Afghan refugees housing for up to three months. “As a Catholic university dedicated to our founding core principles of social justice, we are delighted to answer the call to act upon our stated values and advance our mission,” said NDNU President Beth Martin. (Rya Jetha, Bay City News Foundation)
With support from nonprofit Tiyya Foundation, Enayatullah and his family have officially moved into their own apartment in Southern California, after living in a single hotel room for almost three months. (Zarina Khairzada, Spectrum News 1)
Afghan refugee children in Fresno, California, are attending free gymnastics, Taekwondo, dance, and English classes as a part of a three-week summer program hosted by nonprofit Break the Barriers. Cross City Christian Church and Bethany Christian Services helped fund the program. (Kassandra Gutierrez, ABC30 Action News)
In Modesto, California, 17 Afghan women were the first to complete a training program offered by the International Rescue Committee Turlock and Modesto Junior College to help them obtain home childcare licenses. (Kevin Valine, The Modesto Bee)
Spearheaded by former refugee Halima Kazem-Stojanovic, the Afghan Visiting Scholars program at San José State University has become a critical haven for Afghan scholars fleeing the Taliban. (Rachael Myrow, KQED)
Marine Maj. Dominic Chiaverotti and his former Afghan interpreter Zia recently reunited in San Francisco after Chiaverotti helped evacuate Zia’s wife, who was then pregnant, amid the chaos in Kabul last year. “We’ll never forget the help,” Zia said. The video is worth watching. (Lauren Toms, CBS Bay area)
Hashmat Nadirpor, a lawyer who fled Afghanistan, is now helping professionals find work and refuge via the Scholars At Risk program at the University of California Irvine School of Law. (Zarina Khairzada, Spectrum News 1)
Later this week, nonprofits Welcome.US and REACT DC will host a two-day Newcomer Hiring Fair in Sacramento, California, for Afghans and Ukrainians who have resettled in the area. (Ayaana Williams, ABC 10)
In Southern California, the nonprofit Tiyya Foundation is assisting Afghan families with finding housing and other essential services. (Zarina Khairzada, Spectrum News 1)
Bill Lawrence writes about his experience as one of 14 Christian retirees whose church experienced a transformation after welcoming an Afghan family. (Religion News Service)
Refugees are being welcomed to furnished places in the South Bay area near San Francisco thanks to retiree a retired woman who leads the online community Refugee Resettlement Village to gather donations and furniture. (Garvin Thomas, NBC Bay Area)
The #AfghanEvac coalition, dedicated to resettling Afghan allies, has grown to include more than 250 organizations worldwide and has helped 125,000 Afghans resettle in the U.S. Founder Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran, re-ups the call on Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act. (Joey Safchik, NBC San Diego)
Beautiful photos and text allow Afghans to share their stories of welcomeand challenge as they resettled in Sacramento, California. (Sasha Abramsky and Fred Greaves, Comstock’s Magazine)
In San Diego, an Afghan refugee family adapts to life in a new place. (Madison Weil, ABC 10)
Afghan refugees build a safe haven in a small town in the Mojave desert. (Joshua Yeager, KVPR)
In Sacramento, the Masons of California are sponsoring bilingual books in English and Farsi for Afghan students in one school district. (Masons of California)

Colorado

“We had bikes donated. We have had clothes. We had a car donated as well. It’s just been this outpouring of love,” said Heidi Henkel, who is aiding her husband, an Army veteran, in bringing his Afghan interpreter and his family to Colorado. (Shaun Boyd, CBS Denver)
The Rose Community Foundation and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) have launched the Colorado Afghan Evacuee Support Fund — with a goal of $5.7 million to support “housing, job resources, transportation resources, legal aid to assist with immigration visas and medical needs.” (Angeline McCall, KUSA)
Boulder, Colorado, resident and Afghanistan veteran Chris Liggett used social media to help a former employee, Matiullah, and his family escape Afghanistan and resettle in the U.S. (Annie Mehl, Longmont Times-Call)
Southern Colorado’s “KOAA News 5 is partnering with Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains and Vanguard Skin Specialists to fundraise for the [hundred plus] Afghan refugees who will be resettled in Colorado Springs by the end of the year.” (News5 Staff)
Colorado’s Office of New Americans has opened new transitional housing to prepare for the arrival of 1,000 more Afghan refugees to the state by the end of February. (Micah Smith, Denver7)
In Fort Collins, Colorado, Plymouth United Church of Christ and Heart of the Rockies Christian Church spearheaded efforts to gather almost two dozen volunteers for Afghan resettlement training with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. (Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, United Church of Christ)
An Aurora, Colorado, warehouse is packed with furniture bound for the homes of newly resettled Afghans, and “an army of volunteers” has been making deliveries. (Kevin Beaty, Denverite)
Colorado has welcomed roughly 2,000 Afghan refugees to the state and community members are “organizing to help support new arrivals” by aiding with “medical services, traditional meals and prayer services” in the state’s transitional housing center. (Thy Vo, The Colorado Sun)
In partnership with Joint Development Associates (JDA) International and Canyon View Vineyard Church, a newly formed resettlement program will help a total of nine Afghan families resettle in Grand Junction, Colorado. (Nathan Deal, The Daily Sentinel)
After the Taliban detonated a bomb outside the Kabul Airport that seriously injured some of Ella Nadiya’s family, they were transported to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In November, they relocated to Denver, where her Colorado home has become a place for healing and refuge. (Brian Willie and Victoria Carodine, Rocky Mountain PBS)
Through Operation Allies Welcome, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Bjorn Utu was able to welcome incoming Afghan refugees at several processing bases and participated in a video chat Q&A with local students in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (Suzie Romig, Steamboat Pilot & Today)
Thanks to financial assistance from community nonprofit Broomfield FISH, 18 of the 37 Afghan refugees will now live in Broomfield, Colorado’s “first affordable low-income family apartment development in more than 22 years.” (Sydney McDonald, The Daily Camera)
“I’m hoping to continue working with some of the refugee families,” said Lindsay Olsen of Broomfield, Colorado, who has helped design and refurbish furniture for Afghan refugees and migrant families. “It’s been nice helping to welcome these families into Broomfield and help them get set up in their new homes.” (Sydney McDonald, Broomfield Enterprise)
Dozens of volunteers help staff Tracy Harper’s makeshift legal clinics around the Denver area, each of which helps “as many as 25 [Afghan] families simultaneously fill out asylum applications.” (Kevin Beaty, Denverite)
Ahmad Khalid Siddiqi, a former interpreter for U.S. troops, tells the stirring story of his final days in Kabul and his journey to the US with the support of an American colleague. (Paul Kix, Deseret News)
In Colorado, two resettled Afghan women have rebuilt their lives as dental assistants with the aid of the Broomfield Resettlement Task Force. (Corbett Stevenson, Daily Camera)
A coffee shop in Colorado helps welcome immigrants and refugees through apprenticeships. (Katie Fisher, The Rocky Mountain Collegian)
A new cricket team at a Colorado high school helps Afghan students feel welcome. (Anna Alejo, CBS News Colorado)

Connecticut

Connecticut’s Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI) in Bridgeport is preparing to welcome up to 150 Afghans. (Brian Lockhart, Connecticut Post)
“These evacuees are our allies and have supported our country for years, and it is our turn to return the favor,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D), whose state is set to welcome around 300 refugees. “Connecticut has a legacy of being there for those in need, and we are proud to answer the call.” (NBC Connecticut)
Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, Connecticut, is looking to “develop a complimentary program of engaging community groups in the resettlement process.” (Desiree D’Iorio, WSHU)
In New Haven, Connecticut, the newly formed Shoreline Interfaith Resettlement “will be co-sponsoring an Afghan refugee family with Integrated Refugee Immigrant Services (IRIS) in the coming months.” (Ben Rayner, Zip 06)
Thanks to donation drives from Connecticut Shoreline in partnership with other resettlement agencies in the area, “new arrivals will be offered toasters, coffee makers, towels, sheets and warm clothing.” (Sarah Page Kyrcz, CT Insider)
The veterans organization at Wesleyan University has organized a “Share-the-Warmth winter drive” to run through Dec. 18, with donations going to Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), the Center for Children’s Advocacy, and the Women and Families Center of Connecticut. (Sam Hilton, The Wesleyan Argus)
In New Haven, Connecticut, the Yale Muslim Students Association and Yale International Relations Association co-hosted a banquet for Afghan refugees, which raised over $3000 and counting for refugee resettlement agency Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services. (Miranda Jeyaretnam, Yale News)
After some Afghan evacuees requested sewing machines, Adrian Brown, a volunteer with New Haven-based Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, posted the request in a Facebook Group and “ended up with 25 sewing machines that were in good enough working condition to make their way to the refugees they were looking to support.” (Cinnamon Janzer, Next City, The Oregonian)
In partnership with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) and an all-volunteer Branford Refugee Resettlement (BRR)/Helping Families Settle group, Afghan refugees Laila and Mosa Sadat have been able to resettle and begin a new family in Branford, Connecticut. (Pam Johnson, Zip06)
Organizations in Bridgeport teamed up to help a new Afghan refugee family “improve their English and progress towards their longer-term professional goals” through English as a Second Language courses. (Laura Roberts, HamletHub)
Jane Kinity, a former refugee from Kenya, started an annual Refugee Day picnic three years ago with the goal of bringing New Haven’s refugee community together: “They needed a place of connection,” she said. (Laura Glesby, New Haven Independent)
In partnership with Helping Families Settle, New Haven, Connecticut’s Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services helped organize a baby shower for Afghan evacuees Mosa and Mohammadi Sadat. “It just tells me that this community has got a big heart,” said volunteer Tracey Scheer, who organized the event. (Sarah Page Kyrcz, New Haven Register)
Afghan refugee “Metal Sam,” who fled theTaliban’s restrictions on music, is now residing in Connecticut and uses death metal music to share a message of hope and peace. (Ray Hardman, Connecticut Public Radio)
Afghan artist, Matin Malikzada continues to take pride in his work now that he has found community in Connecticut. (Leslie Brody, The New York Times)
Afghan refugee women are telling their stories through art featured at a New Haven, Connecticut, gallery. (Lucy Gellman, Arts Paper)

Delaware

Airmen at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware are donating supplies to support vulnerable Afghans. (Sarah Ash, ABC 47)
Jewish Family Services of Delaware has pledged to help 30 refugees, including Afghan families, resettle in the state. (Mark Eichmann, WHYY)

District of Columbia

Foodhini, a D.C. food delivery service featuring cuisine from emerging immigrant chefs, began a new initiative to provide homemade Afghan-style “welcome meals” for refugees and families arriving in the area.
No Lost Generation, a student organization at George Washington University, “will meet families arriving at the airport, help them move into their homes in Maryland and Virginia and share advice about resettling in the U.S.” (The GW Hatchet)
Zainab — who fled from Afghanistan just two years ago and is now a chef in Washington, D.C.’s Foodhini — is offering “‘welcome meals’ that are donated by customers to support newly arriving families.” (Joel Rose, NPR)
In collaboration with other military spouses and veterans, Amy Marden founded React DC, “an organization that not only connects refugees with physical needs like furniture and clothes, but also helps with more complicated needs, like finding doctors for their children and signing up for school.” (Debra Alfarone, CBS News)
The Washington Post’s Antonio Olivo details heroic efforts in the D.C. area to facilitate Afghan resettlement.
As part of a network of local parent volunteers helping to resettle Afghans, Michelle Cooper of Washington, D.C., packed her car with “bags of clothing, furniture, toys and baby gear” to help support an Afghan family. Other volunteers have helped with resumes, playdates and more. (Caitlin Gibson, The Washington Post)

Florida

Florida law firm Pajcic & Pajcic donated $50,000 to Catholic Charities Jacksonville’s refugee resettlement program to support Afghan SIV holders and humanitarian parolees. (Katherine Lewin, Florida Times-Union)
Students at McNeal Elementary School in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, have collected 46 bags’ worth of donations for Afghan refugee children. (Bill Murphy, Bay News 9)
The International Rescue Committee in Tallahassee, Florida, is helping Afghan families resettle and get their children immunizations and enrolled in school while also helping parents find jobs. (Micah Cho, ABC 27)
Sarasota, Florida-based Marine Corps. Capt. Bob Koenig, an Afghanistan veteran, “started a 145-mile walk to raise awareness about Afghan refugees and funds to help with the relocation of [his interpreter’s] family from Fort Bliss, Texas, to the Sarasota area.” (Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
The Tampa Bay, Florida, non-profit Save Settle Support Initiative or S3I — founded by an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan — is helping Afghans evacuate and resettle in the U.S. (Vanessa Araiza, ABC Action News)
Nonprofits in Jacksonville, Florida, are preparing to help resettle at least 400 Afghan refugees, with Lutheran Social Services calling for “volunteers to help with transportation, apartment setup and language interpretation.” (Claire Heddles, WJCT News)
Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services has resettled 164 Afghan refugees in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area, and expects to help a total of 250. (Waveney Ann Moore, St. Pete Catalyst)
Jacksonville, Florida, residents hosted a welcome pizza party for Kaihan, a former Afghan combat interpreter, and his family as they resettle in Jacksonville Beach. (WJCT News)
For the holidays, Larry and Trudy Rankin of Lakeland, Florida, spent 10 days volunteering their time to help with Afghan resettlement as part of a welcoming effort by El Calvario United Methodist Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico. “The couple’s tasks included ferrying the refugees around in a van — taking them shopping and to the park and, on one occasion, searching for a phone repair shop after a toddler dunked her parents’ cell phone in a toilet.” (Gary White, The Lakeland Ledger)
Tallahassee, Florida, residents welcomed two Afghan families with help from the International Rescue Committee and Killearn United Methodist Church. (Marina Brown, Tallahassee Democrat)
A food truck donation drive was held in Gainesville, Florida, to support Afghan and Haitian refugees in the area. (Jacqueline Macia, WUFT)
Nonprofit Westminster Communities of Florida has hired more than 40 resettled Afghans to work at its nursing homes and senior communities across the state. Afghans who work for the company also receive housing and an opportunity to become self-sufficient. (Christopher Spata, Tampa Bay Times)
For The Banner — the magazine of the Christian Reformed Church — Christina Ray Stanton, co-founder of Loving All Nations, speaks to how Afghan evacuees helped recenter her faith and fall in love with her hometown of Tallahassee, Florida.

Georgia

Clarkston, Georgia, has a history of welcoming refugees. As it tries to keep up with large numbers of arriving Afghans, members of Georgia’s Clarkston International Bible Church have planned a Thanksgiving-week service in five languages, in addition to welcoming efforts centering around food. (Chris Moody, The Washington Post)
Baseer Basil, owner of Kabul Market — the only Afghan grocery store in Georgia — is “working closely with the IRC in Atlanta to offer discounts to refugee families, and will regularly deliver food to newly arrived Afghans.” (Paradise Afshar, The Atla nta Journal-Constitution)
Wolffork Baptist Church in Rabun Gap, Georgia, “joined about 50 other congregations in the state to collect items and funds for welcome kits” for Afghan evacuees. (Scott Barkley, Baptist Press)
Atlanta’s Frazer Center has recently hired seven Afghan refugees as new teachers, helping to combat a labor shortage: “It’s a four-month pilot program in which the refugees, who are paid interns, become certified as childcare instructors and will qualify for full-time jobs. As they teach, they also learn English three days a week.” (Mark Strassman, CBS News)
“When I retire, I want to work with refugee children,” said retired teacher Sissy Hoffman, 80, who has spent nine months helping an Afghan family resettle via the Inspirits First Families Mentorship program in Savannah, Georgia. “This is really the crowning glory.” (Bianca Moorman, Savannah Morning News)
Allie Reeser, an afterschool director at Indian Creek Elementary in Clarkston, Georgia, has been a “guide, friend and neighbor” to refugee children’s parents living in the Willow Branch apartment community, “offering assistance with everything from getting a driver’s license to communicating with doctors.” (Linda Jacobson, The 74)
Thanks to support from IRC-Atlanta, the Mohammeds are settling into their new four-bedroom apartment in Stone Mountain, Georgia, after spending months in an extended-stay hotel. (Sophia Qureshi, Atlanta Magazine)
After fleeing to the United States, Afghan doctor Said Pasoon is continuing his medical career. He’s about to graduate from nursing school in Georgia. (Ken Scar, Gwinnett Daily Post) 
After fleeing Afghanistan himself, Mirwais Jalali is helping his company hire more resettled Afghans. (Kelly Yamanouchi, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Hawaii

Hawaiian Airlines sends planes to help relocate Afghan refugees. (KHON2)

Idaho

The Idaho Office for Refugees will help resettle about 400 Afghan refugees; most will join host families in the Boise and Twin Falls areas. (Brenda Rodriguez, KTVB 7)
Two families and a military veteran from Idaho have worked together to help welcome and assist an Afghan family of 11: “The same way we would take care of our military families, we take care of the interpreters that gave us the ability to be safer, reduce risk and allow our comrades to come home,” said Alex Castagno. “So we should treat them the same way that we treat our own.” (Candice Hare, KMVT/KSVT)
Scott Pearhill, a deacon with Holy Spirit Catholic Community, has been teaching Afghan refugees resettled in Pocatello, Idaho, how to drive in his own car twice a week. (John O’Connell, Idaho State Journal)
The College of Southern Idaho’s refugee program held its annual Refugee Day event in Twins Falls City Park, featuring food from eight countries and musical performances from refugees, in honor of World Refugee Day. (Rachel Cohen, Boise State Public Radio News)

Illinois

Building Peaceful Bridges, a nonprofit in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, is working to reunite families in the area with relatives still in Afghanistan. (Daniel I. Dorfman, Chicago Tribune)
Illinois lawmakers have pledged to welcome and support about 500 Afghan refugees. (Mike Lowe, WGN-TV)
Timeless Toys in Chicago “is accepting and matching new toy donations to Afghan refugee children through the end of September.” (NBC 5)
Timeless Toys in Chicago “is in the final stretch of accepting and matching cash and toy donations for refugee families from Afghanistan.” (Alex V. Hernandez, Block Club Chicago)
A veteran-led group in Chicago named “Project Dynamo” welcomed 59 children and their families on Thursday and is assisting refugees with housing. (Natalie Bomke, FOX 32)
Kathryn Mueller and Hilda Carey, two members of a small Mennonite congregation in Chicago, have led the efforts in restoring a clergy house for a new Afghan family of up to ten people. (Ben Schamisso, Newsy)
Volunteers at the Islamic Foundation of Villa Park in Illinois have been collecting donations and attempting to secure housing for Afghans arriving soon. (Leah Hope, ABC 7 Chicago)
World Relief Chicago has resettled about 500 refugees in the city and neighboring suburbs over the last 40 years or so. It will continue efforts to resettle Afghan evacuees in Rogers Park, “a diverse neighborhood where many refugees from across the world have already resettled.” (Leen Yassine, Loyola Phoenix)
Special Immigrant Visa recipient Shams Frough, owner of Kapisa Rugs, is helping to clean and deliver traditional Afghan rugs to Aghan refugee families in Chicago. (Olivia Cohen, Chicago Sun-Times)
Since October, World Relief Quad Cities has helped resettle 140 Afghan refugees to the area. The resettlement agency aspires to resettle 32 more Afghans by mid-February and welcomes donations like furniture, appliances, or clothes. (Hernan Gutierrez, KWQC News)
The Afghan Welcome Home Project of Central Illinois is gathering donations to help Afghan refugees with resettlement, English-language services, legal support, and employment. (Harry Croton, Heart of Illinois ABC)
With the Chicago area planning to welcome about 400 Afghan refugees beginning this month, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago “is calling for people to volunteer their time to help the refugees and for landlords to offer housing at discounted prices.” (Chris Coffey, NBC 5 Chicago)
In Champaign, Illinois, the nonprofit The Refugee Center is ready to welcome incoming Afghan refugees. (Tom Kacich, News-Gazette)
Lauren and Craig Peterson of East Moline, Illinois, partnered with Moline-based World Relief Quad Cities to welcome and sponsor a total of three Afghan families since December. “‘When you give, you receive back more than you give,’ Craig said, noting their Christian faith has been a strong motivating factor to open their home and hearts.” (Jonathan Turner, Local 4 Quadcities.com)
Northeastern Illinois University has raised $60,000 towards a goal of $500,000 in scholarships for Afghan refugee students. (Paris Schutz, WTTW)
After adopting an Afghan refugee family nearly six months ago, Chicago-area resident Madhu Krishnamurthy shares her experience spending Ramadan with them for the Daily Herald.
The Muslim Women’s Resource Center in Rogers Park, Chicago, has been supporting an estimated 300 Afghans and other refugee communities with housing, translation, mental health services, and more. (NBC Chicago)
Afghan refugee students changed the dynamic and built community at a Chicago high school. (Elly Fishman, WBEZ Chicago)
Sullivan High School in Chicago has welcomed about 70 Afghan students, and teachers and staff such as social worker Josh Zepeda are supporting them as they integrate into American culture and learn the ropes at school. (FOX 32 Chicago)
Refugees and immigrants from over 15 countries played in a “World Cup-style competition” at Pottawattomie Park to honor the 20th anniversary of World Refugee Day Chicago. (Youcef O. Bounab, Block Club Chicago / Borderless)
The nonprofit Chicago chapter of Islamic Circle of North America Relief (ICNA Relief) hosted a giveaway to Afghan refugees celebrating Eid al-Adha, which began Saturday. “We just want to make them feel a little bit special, so they know that we care for them and we’re there for them,” said Beena Farid, ICNA Relief’s outreach coordinator. (Shanzeh Ahmad, Chicago Tribune)
Thanks to Catholic Charities, former Afghan Air Force pilot Abdul was able to start a new life in Chicago. Now, he is helping fellow Afghan evacuees by serving as a Catholic Charities case manager. (Will Jones, ABC7)
Leaders of the Community Collaboration Initiative spoke this week about their efforts to help Afghan evacuees by bringing together 22 Muslim-American nonprofits, many of which are based in Chicago. (WTTW)
Meena, who worked at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, has resettled in Chicago and is working at RefugeeOne, a newly formed asylum team, assisting Afghan evacuees even as her own application is pending. (Elly Fishman, WBEZ Chicago)
In Chicago, 6-year-old resettled Afghan Mahbuba, who is deaf, embarks on a transformative journey as she discovers the power of her own voice through ASL classes. (Elly Fishman, WBEZ Chicago) 
Chicago has launched a new volunteer program for neighbors to support migrants. (Madison Savedra, Block Club Chicago)
Two groups in Chicago are teaming up to provide newcomers with mental health support. (Stephanie Wade, ABC 7)

Indiana

Michael Martel, the Marine Corps veteran overseeing donations for Afghan families housed at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, told the Indianapolis Star’s Rashika Jaipuriar: “The willingness to help — it’s strong. It’s … been a while since I’ve seen it … on this scale … So again, Indiana has been great.”
Hoosiers of many faiths are collecting prayer rugs to donate to Afghan refugees at Camp Atterbury, south of Indianapolis. (Rashika Jaipuriar, Indianapolis Star)
Brightly Art Studio in Brownsburg, Indiana, is collecting art from children and adults to provide a warm welcome to refugees at Camp Atterbury. (Kelsey Anderson, WRTV)
Ibrahim Bata of Zionsville High School in Indianapolis, son of a former Afghan refugee, “raised more than $11,000 to buy shoes and socks for young Afghan evacuees at Camp Atterbury.” (Russ McQuaid, Fox 59)
The Salvation Army of Central Indiana donated more than 1,600 coats to Afghans temporarily housed at Camp Atterbury “as part of the major statewide effort” to support Afghan evacuees. (WBIW)
With the help of local volunteers including a former colleague, Afghan evacuee Edris has become the first refugee to resettle in Muncie, Indiana. (Courtney Spinelli, FOX 59)
As part of the Scholar Rescue Fund and Scholars At Risk Network, Indiana University is trying to connect displaced Afghan students with “fund fellowships or temporary teaching and research positions.” (Jon Zimney, 95.3 MNC)
Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has welcomed and resettled 60 Afghan refugees to the area, with a goal of resettling up to 75. (Brian Davis, WOWO)
A nonprofit in Muncie, Indiana, called AWAKEN has recently “created a subcommittee dedicated to the relocation of Afghan refugees.” (Rebecca Rosado, Ball State Daily)
Five churches in Columbus, Indiana, are sponsoring four Afghan families for at least their first year in their new home. “The local partner congregations are motivated by a sense of call from God to help, knowing these Afghan individuals took great risks to support American troops serving in their country,” said the Rev. Felipe Martinez, pastor at First Presbyterian Church. (Brian Blair, The Republic)
Trinity Reformed Church in Bloomington, Indiana, is raising funds at its 15th annual Christmas Sing-Along to help permanently resettle Afghans currently living at Camp Atterbury. (Carol Kugler, The Herald-Times)
Veteran-led Team Rubicon helped host Afghans at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, an effort that ended Friday. In a letter, the team thanks residents of the Hoosier State for their hospitality and support. (The Herald-Times)
In South Bend, Indiana, about 100 volunteers are helping the United Religious Community of St. Joseph County welcome evacuees and help them get settled. (Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune)
Ahead of a snowstorm, Muncie, Indiana-based Awaken Inc. and other advocacy groups organized winter coat drives and supermarket runs for the many Afghan refugees experiencing snow for the first time. (Katiera Winfrey, WISH TV)
Volunteers from Indiana and Ohio transformed an unused building “into Catholic Charities’ new Cabrini Center, which will offer temporary housing and resettlement services to Afghan refugees starting a new life in Fort Wayne.” (Kevin Kilbane, Crux)
“The Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend’s refugee program received a donation of $21,868 during a check presentation ceremony from Congregation Achduth Vesholom and the Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne,” for Afghan resettlement in Fort Wayne. (Jazlynn Bebout, Fort Wayne’s NBC)
On Wednesday, Indiana State Reps. Sue Errington (D-Muncie) and Elizabeth Rowray (R-Yorktown) recognized Muncie-based Bibi Bahrami of the Muncie Afghan Refugee Resettlement Committee (MARRC) and the Afghan Women’s and Kid’s Education and Necessities (AWAKEN) for the organizations’ dedication to serving and resettling Afghan refugees in the state. (Mike Rhodes, The Muncie Journal)
“It’s been a huge outpouring and we’re so glad to be a part of it,” said Mark Meadows, a member of the Warsaw (Indiana) Afghan Help Group. Donations for Afghan refugees have surpassed the group’s expectations. (David Slone, Warsaw Times-Union)
Afghan artists and women’s rights activists Zainab Ahmadi and Fawzia Abdaly joined Indianapolis artist Tiffany Black, along with almost 60 refugees, to create a mural honoring Afghan refugees’ journey to Indiana, which is now on display at the Indianapolis International Airport. (Eric Berman, WIBC)
The United Religious Community of St. Joseph County, Indiana, and faith partners including Catholic Charities and La Casa de Amistad have welcomed 32 Afghan refugees to South Bend. The groups are assisting with housing, health care and jobs, schooling and English language lessons. (Paige Barnes, WSBT 22)
The City of South Bend and La Casa de Amistad in Indiana recently partnered up to provide legal support for Afghan refugees, including the City committing to “$100,000 for translation [and] interpretation,” among other legal services. (Gemma DiCarlo, WVPE 88.1 Elkhart/South Bend)
In collaboration with the Columbus-based Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), a welcome team with St. Andrew’s Anglican Church has helped resettle Afghan families in Central Ohio, collecting donations and providing them with food and furniture. (Joshua Keeran, The Delaware Gazette)
A $20,688 grant from the Indiana Department of Education will be used to support Afghan students at Fort Wayne Community Schools with services “including interpreters for the students and their families as well as supplemental instructional materials.” (Ashley Sloboda, The Journal Gazette)
The Muncie Afghan Refugee Resettlement Committee has been working to welcome 115 new Afghan evacuees to their new home in Indiana. The volunteer group was established in 2021 and provides resettlement services for evacuees, including housing and employment support, among other services. (Robin Gibson, Muncie Star Press)
The St. Joseph County Library and United Religious Community of South Bend, Indiana, recently held an event to raise cultural awareness about Afghanistan, where participants could learn about Afghan books, art, and music. (WNDU)
An estimated 130 Afghan evacuees now live in Muncie, Indiana, thanks to resettled families spreading the word and support from the Refugee Alliance of Delaware County. (David Penticuff, Muncie Star Press)
An Afghan family is now helping welcome others after finding its own welcome when they arrived in Terre Haute, Indiana. (Mark Bennett, Tribune-Star) 
In Indiana, Holly Loos is assisting Afghan families coming to Indianapolis, and is reaching out to the local community for support. (Amicia Ramsey, WISHTV)

Iowa

Lutheran Services in Iowa “is recruiting Pashto- and Dari-speaking interpreters, meeting with landlords, city officials and major employers, such as Tyson Foods, and enlisting the help of locals who can serve as mentors for up to 150 Afghan refugees, who could begin arriving in metro Sioux City within the next month.” (Dolly Butz, Sioux City Journal)
Food truck owner Ahmed Aldoori, originally from Iraq, is providing hot traditional Afghan meals to refugees arriving to Des Moines, Iowa. (Andrea May Sahouri, Des Moines Register)
Missouri River Historical Development in Woodbury County, Iowa, recently awarded $40,000 to a local nonprofit “to help refugees pay deposits for housing.” (Dave Dreeszen, Sioux City Journal)
Back Country Apparel in Des Moines, Iowa, is collecting donations for Lutheran Services of Iowa to help welcome as many as 300 Afghan families to the area. (Carson J. S. Reichardt, Local 5 News)
A new donation center sponsored by real estate developer Krause+ has opened in Des Moines, Iowa, to help “facilitate contributions, including large donations like furniture” for Afghan refugees. (Jason Clayworth, Axios)
Jason Lief, an associate professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Northwestern College and a Forum mobilizer, hosted conversation about supporting Afghan refugees in Sioux City, Iowa in Februrary. (Connor Trett, Siouxland News)
Pastor Kyle Rains and his church, New Life in Dubuque, Iowa, were approved by the State apartment to help resettle an Afghan family of 10 after partnering with Samaritan’s Purse, the city of Dubuque, local businesses, organizations and school districts. (Fernando Garcia-Franceschini, KCRG)
In partnership with Des Moines Refugee Support, Kate Hoch, an Iowa native now living in Massachusetts “is sewing culturally specific clothing for dolls” for Afghan refugee children resettling in the metro area. “I want to welcome these children,” Hoch said. “They’ve been through so much. Not only back in Afghanistan but their journey here has been very difficult.” (Khalil Maycock, Local 5 News We are Iowa)
Des Moines Area Community College is donating 50 laptops to Afghan families resettled in Central Iowa. (KCCI 8 News)
Lutheran Services in Iowa opened a new refugee resettlement office in Sioux City last week to help accommodate newly arriving Afghans and other refugees in need. (Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)
Cedar Rapids’ Catherine McAuley Center is looking for English tutors to assist 250 resettled Afghans. As a tutor, “I get the chance to learn a little bit about their country and their language as well as trying to understand empathy, and that helps them,” said Brenda Meeker, the Training and Development Specialist for Raining Rose, a partner. (Brian Tabick, KCRG)
Iowa City organization Afghan Allies, one of Iowa’s sponsor circles, is going above and beyond to help Afghan refugees in need by “[assisting] incoming Afghan refugees with finding housing, employment, and preliminary income support.” (Simone Garza, The Daily Iowan)
Afghan refugees who work at a Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Nebraska are often far from their caseworkers in Iowa, which can pose a challenge – but Tyson’s is working to help them find housing and additional support. (Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)
YPN, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based nonprofit formerly known as the Young Parents Network, helps refugee and other immigrant families make connections and support young children — including, most recently, Afghan refugees: “They help us with everything,” Alima Rahimi said through an interpreter. (Emily Andersen, The Gazette)
With the deadline to apply for legal status quickly approaching, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Drake Legal Clinic, and Iowa Legal Aid are organizing in-person information sessions to help Afghan families under humanitarian parole “figure out their next steps to becoming permanent residents…” (Linh Ta, Axios)
In Iowa, Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Des Moines has helped resettle about 300 Afghan refugees, assisting migrants with “housing, healthcare, English lessons, and employment.” (Taj Simmons, WHO 13 News)
The Employee Council in Iowa held its first session aimed at teaching Sioux City businesses about the “best practices for hiring and maintaining employees from other countries.” One speaker was Afghan refugee who shared his experiences working in a local meat packing plant. (Siouxland News)
The nonprofit organizations Catherine McAuley Center and Central Furniture Rescue are partnering to furnish Afghan families’ homes in the Cedar Rapids area before their arrival. (Elijah Decious, The Gazette)
The nonprofit organizations Catherine McAuley Center and Central Furniture Rescue are partnering to furnish Afghan families’ homes in the Cedar Rapids area before their arrival. (Elijah Decious, The Gazette)
The nonprofit Des Moines Refugee Support, founded in 2016 by public school teacher Alison Hoeman, has provided necessities for refugees living in the Des Moines metro area, including donated items from Saturday’s “Santa’s Ride” event. (Francesca Block, Des Moines Register)
A dental hygienist writes that Iowa’s experience helping resettled Afghans get much-needed dental care not only helped welcome the new comers but has broader lessons for community health. (Mary Kelly, Des Moines Register)
Martha Hulshof of Sioux County, Iowa, has helped 120 Ukrainians — including theTodikash family — resettle there with thehelp of her church and others. (Sheila Brummer, IPR)

Kansas

Volunteer group welcoming Afghan refugees to Manhattan in coming months (Alexander Hurla, Kansas State Collegian)
Afghan refugee grateful to be in Kansas this holiday season (Stephanie Nutt and Andrea Herrera, FOX 4)
Twins Alizeh and Sania Hammad in Pittsburg, Kansas, developed the project Sate Crate, a free community food pantry, to combat food insecurity for the newly resettled Afghan and Somali refugee population in the area. (Kimberly Barker, The Globe)
Thanks to Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, Afghan journalist Qasim Rahimi was able to resettle in the U.S. One year after Kabul’s fall, he recounts his harrowing escape and more: “Afghanistan lost everything: human rights, women’s rights, civil liberties, the national army, the national police. But the future can still be ours …” (KCUR)
Resettled Afghans spoke of their homeland and their gratitude for being in Garden City, Kansas, which assistant city manager Derek Ramos said “is experiencing a ‘golden era’ for growth and immigration.” (AJ Dome, Kansas Reflector) 
A rescue mission led by former Army intelligence officer Jason Kander, also a Democratic former Missouri secretary of state, helped several families escape the Taliban and make their way to the United States. (Eric Adler, The Kansas City Star)
An American Legion post in Kansas hosted a fundraising dinner for the Manhattan Area Resettlement Team (MART), giving locals an opportunity “to honor and support Manhattan’s newest residents.” (AJ Dome, The Mercury)
At the Manhattan Area Resettlement Team Block Party in Kansas, volunteers and new arrivals celebrated friendship together. (AJ Dome, The Mercury)

Kentucky

Kentucky’s resettlement agencies are preparing to welcome up to 775 Afghans. (Chris Kenning, Louisville Courier Journal)
Kentucky Refugee Ministries is also connecting Afghan evacuees with free health care. (Monica Harkins, WDRB.com)
Western Kentucky University faculty members have launched a project to fill more than 150 welcome bags “with essential and comforting items” for Afghan arrivals. (Hannah Covington and Rhonda Miller, WKU Public Radio)
With help from a local fabric store, Janeane Vickers of Mount Vernon, Indiana, and others donated 100 hand-sewn prayer rugs and headscarves to 180 Afghan refugees in Owensboro, Kentucky. (Nathan Havenner, Messenger-Inquirer)
A network of Bowling Green, Kentucky, organizations recently hosted a welcome event for 350 Afghan refugees who have resettled in the area. (Allie Hennard, WBKO)
Students at St. John Catholic School in Georgetown, Kentucky, raised $3,369.50 and other goods for Afghan refugees and donated the proceeds to Kentucky Refugee Ministries. (Emily Perkins, Georgetown News-Graphic)
One Faith Fellowship in Owensboro, Kentucky, is holding a benefit concert on Sunday to help a refugee family buy a car. (Don Wilkins, Messenger-Inquirer)
Nasir Ahmad was hired as Bowling Green, Kentucky’s first Afghan community navigator to support Afghan families with housing and resources on driving and learning English. His ultimate goal is to “see over 400 Afghans who came to Bowling Green fully resettled, employed and positioned to fully function.” (Mariia Novoselia, Bowling Green Daily News)
More than 30 Afghan students at Newcomer Academy in Kentucky got an opportunity to meet Dr. Nadia Nadim, a professional soccer player for Racing Louisville FC and former Afghan refugee. (Ford Sanders, WHAS11)
A welcoming community in Owensboro, Kentucky, has helped support three resettled Afghans who are now opening the first Afghan eatery in town, reports Keith Lawrence of the Messenger-Inquirer. Check out the story of these three cooks who started as volunteers in a shelter kitchen and made everyone fall for their food.
Afghanistan’s first female fighter pilot is making Owensboro, Kentucky, home with help from the local Catholic church. (Elizabeth Wong Barnstead, OSV News; first reported in The Western Kentucky Catholic)
For the Qambari family of Louisville, Kentucky, the U.S. “feels like our home, our own country” after they were resettled in 2021. (Olivia Castlen, The Record)
An Afghan evacuee shares how the Louisville, Kentucky, community has welcomed him. (Shaiqullah Subhan, Courier Journal)

Louisiana

Afghan refugees welcomed by Baton Rouge churches: ‘We want to show them that southern hospitality’ (Elyse Carmosino, The Advocate)
From despair to joy: Afghan interpreter escapes to U.S. with help of Louisiana buddy (Ellyn Couvillion, The Advocate)

Maine

Up in Lewiston, Maine, the support has been “overwhelming with people donating clothing, food and other items” in anticipation of 50-100 Afghans arriving in the next few months. (WGME)
Bonnie Titcomb Lewis and Lisa Day, temporary employees of Maine Immigrant & Refugee Services in Lewiston, have helped clean 10 apartments to prepare for the arrival of Afghan refugees. (Daryn Slover, Sun Journal)
Guy Mpoyi, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, founded a Bus Ambassadors Program to help asylum seekers in Portland, Maine, navigate public transportation systems. (Sean Stackhouse, News Center Maine)

Maryland

KindWorks is rounding up volunteers to cook homemade Afghan welcome meals for refugees resettling in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. (John Gonzalez, ABC 7)
10 local congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have helped more than 400 Afghan refugees resettle in Hyattsville, Maryland. (Sean Salai, The Washington Times)
When Rabbi Adam Raskin and his congregants at Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac, Maryland, saw the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan unfold, they decided to sponsor an Afghan refugee family. To “demonstrate to the family what kind of country they’ve relocated to,” he connected with St. Francis Episcopal Church and the Islamic Community Center of Potomac to create an interfaith initiative to help integrate the family into the community. (Sydney Page, The Washington Post)
New Hope Lutheran Church in Columbia, Maryland, donated $50,000 to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) to help with Afghan resettlement in the state. (Allana Haynes, The Baltimore Sun)
In a first-of-its-kind partnership with the International Rescue Committee, the University of Maryland will temporarily house Afghan evacuees, including families, on campus for up to a year. (Maryland Today)
Tarjorman, a veteran-founded nonprofit group, helped Afghan interpreter Mohammad escape Kabul and resettle in Maryland. It is now working on a plan to help his mother flee Afghanistan as well. (Tammie Moore, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
Maryland-based Homes Not Borders recently organized a benefit concert for Afghan families in need of support. “The consciousness goes away sometimes as other things — other world events — eclipse the things going on in Afghanistan,” says Melinda Baird, who performed at the concert. “But the need is still there.” (Héctor Alejandro Arzate, DCist/WAMU)
The Good Neighbors of Capitol Hill Refugee Resettlement Project recently furnished an apartment in Riverdale, Maryland, for Special Immigrant Visa recipient Raz and his family — the 100th family Good Neighbors has helped resettle. (Luke Lukert, WTOP)
Rafiullah Yari is fulfilling his dream of becoming a professional boxer in the U.S. with the support of the Upton Boxing Center in West Baltimore. (Charles Cohen, The Baltimore Banner)
In 2017, she arrived in the U.S. speaking little English; now Soraya Hosseini — a pseudonym, for her safety — is close to finishing law school. (Ron Cassie, Baltimore Magazine)
In Maryland a group of Afghan refugees celebrates the first anniversary of their acclaimed restaurant. (Jess Arnold and Matt Pusatory, WUSA 9)

Massachusetts

Gov. Charlie Baker (R-Massachusetts) says the state will be “as helpful as we can be” for Afghan refugees. (Matt Murphy, State House News Service)
Boston Medical Center’s Immigrant & Refugee Health Center (IRHC) will connect vulnerable Afghans with health care and social services to “help them heal, thrive, and begin to rebuild their lives.” (Sara Rimer, BU Today)
Lutheran Social Services of New England is preparing to welcome 200 Afghan refugees to Massachusetts over the next six months “and is already lining up housing and other aid.” (Jim Kinney, MassLive)
Worcester, Massachusetts, leaders are preparing help 200 Afghan evacuees resettle and find apartments and jobs this fall. (Katie Benoit, Spectrum News 1)
Per Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, more than 100 volunteers are preparing to welcome and resettle Afghan refugees to the area. (Jim Kinney, MassLive)
Central Massachusetts residents are among those across the state forming “Neighborhood Support Teams (NST)” and collaborating with Ascentria Care Alliance to assist Afghan evacuees. (Anoushka Dalmia, Telegram & Gazette)
The Women in Action Huddle of Greater Newburyport, Massachusetts, is accepting donations, including toiletries, for its fall collection drive, called Safe & New Beginnings, which will support Afghan refugees and domestic violence victims. (The Daily News of Newburyport)
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts, is temporarily housing two Afghan families, including a family of 13 arriving today — “part of the congregation’s response to a churchwide call to “welcome the stranger”. (David Paulsen, Episcopal News Service)
The Worcester Together Coalition recently launched a new website, WTRefugee.org, to help Central Massachusetts residents get involved with Afghan welcome and resettlement efforts. (Monica Benevides, Worcester Business Journal)
In Massachusetts, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 448 raised $10,000 to help Jewish Family Services of Berkshire County assist with Afghan relocation efforts. (Brittany Polito, iBerkshires)
As the International Institute of New England has worked to resettle 427 Afghans, three large evacuee families have found temporary homes at one of two churches in Newburyport, Massachusetts. “People really stepped up in our community, which was great to see,” said the Rev. Jarred Mercer, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. (Heather Alterisio, The Daily News)
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, recently launched a webpage to raise funds for an Afghan refugee family who recently resettled in the area. (Dartmouth Week)
Spearheaded by Pastor Manny Cumplido of West Newbury Congregational Church in Massachusetts, volunteers plan to raise $45,000 to help a newly resettled Afghan family buy a car and other necessities. (Jennifer Solis, Newburyport Daily News)
As part of the Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, Berkshires Resettlement Coordinator Gabriela Sheehan is leading the resettlement of 25 Afghan refugees in the area. “People from everywhere [are] doing everything,” she said, including providing access to culturally appropriate food, driver education training, and more. (Hannah Van Sickle, The Berkshire Edge)
Framingham, Massachusetts-based Open Kitchens Project and Hospitality Common Inc. helped gather 65 people virtually “to learn about the experiences of Afghan refugees and watch a traditional Afghan appetizer prepared.” (Mary Ellen Gambon, Patch)
In Boston, 350 volunteers at 31 sites across the archdiocese were recognized at the Catholic Charities of Boston Spring Celebration for helping resettle 160 Afghan refugees. (Jacqueline Tetrault, The Boston Pilot)
Carter J. Carter, who is sponsoring the Ahmadi family’s resettlement, collaborated with two local churches in Ashfield, Massachusetts, to help the Ahmadis settle into their new home in Red Hook, New York. (Greenfield Recorder)
Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts visited Worcester to welcome the many Afghan refugees who have resettled in the Bay State and to thank local organizers for helping them resettle. (Will Katcher, MassLive Media)
In an effort to build trust, members of the police department in New Bedford, Massachusetts, met at a local mosque with some of the community’s 28 resettled Afghans. (Michael Rock, Fun 107)
Following a judge’s decision, a building that formerly housed school administrative offices in Harvard, Massachusetts, will be leased as a residence for two Afghan refugee families for at least a year, ending “more than six months of uncertainty.” (Rebecca Zhang, The Harvard Press)
New York’s Cazenovia College partnered with Cazenovia Welcomes Refugees (CWR) and InterFaith Works to turn a college-owned building once used for administrative offices and storage into a home for an Afghan family. Reconstructing the building took nine months. (Daily Sentinel)
After fleeing Afghanistan himself, former interpreter Ahmad Ibrahami now works as a case manager for Rochester Refugee Resettlement services, helping other Afghan evacuees apply for jobs, learn to drive, and find housing. (Alex Love, WROC)
Allies of our Afghan Allies, a local community group working with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston, has helped five Afghan men and a separate family of four resettle in Gloucester, Massachusetts. (Michael Cronin, Gloucester Daily News)
After fleeing Afghanistan last year, interpreter Zar Mohammad Stanikzai and his family now call Rochester, New York, home after the organization Keeping Our Promise helped them evacuate. (Patrick Moussignac, News10NBC)
Afghanistan war veteran John Moses is launching the Massachusetts Afghan Alliance as a bridge between local support efforts and resettlement agencies, “to ensure ‘better outcomes for Afghan families.’ ” (Cameron Morsberger, Lowell Sun)
Welcome Neighborhood Support Team (NST) in Marlborough, Massachusetts, is now expanding its support to Afghan families in 28 states. (Maureen Sullivan, Community Advocate)
In Boston, those seeking refuge find safety and community through Boston Catholic Charities programs. (Erika Tarantal, ABC News Center 5)
Boston University has teamed up with 10 other schools to launch a program to help connect and support Afghan women. (Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies)
The town of Harvard, Massachusetts, population 6,870, has warmly welcomed two Afghan families, thanks to the efforts of volunteers and the town itself. (Marcela García, Boston Globe)
Meet Terry Symula, a Massachusetts woman who welcomes and supports resettled Afghans in her community. (Jarmila Gorman, Points of Light)
A Newburyport, Massachusetts, church’s initiative to house Afghan families who have been living in the church basement could serve as a model elsewhere. (Lynn Jolicoeur, WBUR)
After two years in a church shelter, two Afghan families in Newburyport, Massachusetts, are finally moving into their own homes thanks to the support of community volunteers and a minister. (Lynn Jolicoeur, WBUR)

Michigan

In West Michigan, Kalamazoo First Congregational Church is preparing to welcome 100 Afghan refugees. (Emirrora Austin, News Channel 3)
Officials with Bethany Christian Services, Samaritas, the Islamic Center of West Michigan and other groups joined U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer (R) for a candlelight vigil in Grand Rapids to honor the struggle of Afghan refugees. (John Tunnison, MLive)
Wayne County, Michigan, officials and partners announced a $20 million rental assistance program for tenants, including assistance for Afghan refugees to secure housing. (Nushrat Rahman and Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press)
An Army veteran and his wife in Zeeland, Michigan, are doing everything they can to help the family of his friend and former interpreter escape Afghanistan. (Jacqueline Francis, WOOD TV-8)
Michigan recently launched a new site to gather volunteers (in-person or remote) and donations to help incoming Afghan arrivals resettle in the state. (Alyssa Burr, MLive)
In partnership with other organizations, the Refugee Development Center in Lansing, Michigan, provides “English tutoring, a mentorship program, food delivery services and other support” for new arrivals; 300 Afghan refugees are anticipated in coming months. (Elena Durnbaugh, Lansing State Journal)
Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, one of five resettlement refugee groups in Michigan, is collaborating with its network of volunteers to gather necessary donations like food and clothing. (Danny Schwartz, The Detroit Jewish News)
West Michigan agencies like Kalamazoo Public Schools have set up welcome centers to help new Afghan students settle into classrooms. (Hannah Knowles, News Channel 3)
Kent County, Michigan, recently received two six-figure grants “to meet the health and nutritional needs of newly arriving Afghan refugees.” (Bianca Cseke, FOX 17)
In collaboration with Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, Eastern Michigan University is opening its campus apartments to newly arriving Afghan evacuees. (Meredith Bruckner, All About Ann Arbor)
The Trinity Episcopal Church in Houghton, Michigan, will host “A Concert for Afghanistan” on Jan. 15, with proceeds going to Episcopal Migration Ministries, one of six nonprofits helping to resettle Afghans in the area.
In partnership with Bethany Christian Services in West Michigan, locals are stepping up to volunteer with legal services to help Afghan refugees apply for asylum in the U.S. (Paul R. Kopenkoskey, The Lakeshore West Michigan)
Several houses of worship in Kalamazoo, Michigan, are helping gather donated items and money for arriving refugees. (Chris Yu, News Channel 3)
Bethany Christian Services has placed more than 20 Afghan refugee children in homes across Michigan. They’re currently looking for foster families to permanently house Afghan children and teens in West Michigan. (Jacqueline Francis, News 8)
Bethany Christian Services in West Michigan is hosting a virtual webinar next Tuesday to spread awareness about the “dire need” for Afghan refugees to find foster homes. West Michigan couple Silas and Coryn Mittelstaedt are fostering a 12-year-old boy: “…our foster son, he likes to tinker and build things and it’s just great to see a kid start being a kid again.” (13 On Your Side)
Members of Detroit’s Dawoodi Bohra Community joined local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members over the weekend to help the nonprofit Zaman International deliver housewarming kits to resettled Afghans in the area. (Mark Hicks, The Detroit News)
Pilar’s Tamales in Ann Arbor, Michigan, held a drive-thru tamale sale on Sunday to help raise money for Afghan resettlement, with proceeds going to Jewish Family Services. (Jordyn Pair, MLive)
On a trip to Los Angeles, a Detroit family’s chance encounter at a hotel barbecue turned this trip into an experience of a lifetime, spurring grassroots community involvement and a network of family, friends and strangers banding together to assist Afghan refugees.” (Danny Schwartz, The Detroit Jewish News)
Yasin Amiry; his wife, Sema Salari; and their infant daughter, Maryam, are among the more than 1,700 Afghans who have resettled in Michigan in the past year. (Alyssa Burr, MLive)
The Detroit Department of Transportation is offering Afghan refugees looking for a fresh start the opportunity to work as Coach Service Attendants, cleaning buses for around $13 an hour, “help[ing] to create a safe environment.” (Ingrid Kelley and David Komer, FOX 2)
Svetlana Stahl of Michigan befriended Olga Pluzhynk of Ukraine online shortly after the war started and has since taken her in. “I keep telling her she’s not a bother, she’s not a burden to me. I never had a sister and I feel like we have a lot in common,” Stahl said. (Caylee Kirby, WTOL)
SOLIDARITY AMONG SCHOLARS — Researchers at Michigan State University have helped welcome and resettle 12 Afghan scholars, reports Sophia Saliby of WKAR. Previously, the scholars worked together in an agricultural research project in Afghanistan. When the Taliban took control, Kurt Richter, the project leader at Michigan State, helped facilitate the Afghans’ evacuation, first to Albania, where they were able to enroll in a special Master of Science program in horticulture while they waited to come to Michigan. “We had to leave everything behind for a better and a safer life and a better future,” said Latifa Salangi, one of the resettled scholars.
A program in Michigan will offer up to $500 in rent assistance for refugees, asylees and other new arrivals to the state. (Nushrat Rahman, Detroit Free Press)
A U.S. Marine helped an Afghan interpreter and his family leave Afghanistan on the last cargo flight in 2021. The family resettled in Michigan, where the welcome broadened. (Liz Lewin and Nour Rahal, Fox 2) 
In Michigan, the Refugee Development Center will strengthen its work on welcoming after receiving a $1 million grant by theMichigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. (Tianna Jenkins, Fox 47)
Sami Ayazi, a student in Wyoming, Michigan, shares his story of escape and those who have helped him on his journey. (Erin Albanese, School Network News)
In Flint, Michigan, a military veteran helped a former translator and his family come to America. (Courtney Bennett, Michigan Now)

Minnesota

Minnesota and Wisconsin will welcome hundreds of Afghan refugees. “They’re human beings just like us,” said Yazdan Bakhsh, who was adopted from Afghanistan by a Minnesota family as a young boy. (Liz Collin, WCCO-TV)
Sonia Anunciacion, a Minnesotan who still has family in Afghanistan, has organized five donation drives and fundraisers for Afghan evacuees at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. (Kent Erdahl, KARE 11)
Volunteers at Hometown Church in Bloomington, Minnesota, “are packing parcels of hope” in the form of donations for Afghan refugees housed at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. (Rich Reeve, KTSP 5)
Dr. Helen Delfeld of Minneapolis is helping former Afghan students, whom she taught in Bangladesh prior to COVID-19, obtain housing and move off the military base they’re currently living at. (Hannah Flood, Fox 9)
Caroline Clarin is trying to save 12 former employees, all Afghan agricultural specialists whom she bonded with over a love for farming, from her and her wife’s Minnesota farmhouse. (Julie Watson, Associated Press)
In Rochester, Minnesota, a new $15 million fund backed by the Mayo Clinic and local government aims to bridge the city’s affordable housing gap, while Catholic Charities “is leaning into new partnerships with local volunteers … using connections to help find housing.” (Catharine Richert, MPR News)
Minnesota-based Alight, formerly known as the American Refugee Committee, is preparing to resettle some of the 250 Afghan families moving to Minnesota from military bases this January. (Learfield Wire Service)
A new AmeriCorps resettlement program in Minnesota will help resettle about 750 Afghan refugees arriving in the next few months. (Kelly Smith, Star Tribune)
Rev. Rebecca Voss of First United Methodist Church of Wausau, Wisconsin, spearheaded efforts alongside local and federal government officials “to make Wausau a resettlement destination,” which helped form the nonprofit New Beginnings for Refugees. (Julian Emerson, Up North News)
Nonprofits like Los Angeles-based Team Rubicon and Minneapolis-based Alight are spearheading a donation effort in Brooklyn Center to help Afghan refugees resettle in Minnesota. (Jason Melillo, CCX Media)
In partnership with the humanitarian organization Alight, Halal Groceries in Burnsville, Minnesota, “has so far donated 30,000 pounds of food to hundreds of Afghan refugees.” The store plans to continue “significantly reducing the cost to buy groceries” for Afghans as well. (Bisi Onile-Ere, FOX 9)
To celebrate the ending of their first Ramadan in America, “over 300 members of Minnesota’s Afghan community joined neighbors and supporters to break fast together at The Blake School in Hopkins.” (Aala Abdullahi, Sahan Journal)
Local churches, resettlement agencies, and immigrant communities have welcomed the Shinwari family, helping them make connections, get access to transportation, find work, and enroll in school. (Nina Moini, Minnesota Public Radio News)
Mohamed Malim, a former refugee from Kenya, “advocates and empowers other refugees” through fashion, with his clothing line, Epimonia. Half of the profits go to refugee organizations across the country. (Noor Adwan, Sahan Journal)
In partnership with the city of St. Paul, the International Institute of Minnesota launched the nation’s first-of-its-kind pilot program to provide 25 newly arrived immigrant families $750 per month for a year. (Zoë Jackson, Star Tribune)
With thehelp of a sponsorship program, a Ukrainian family is reuniting in Minnesota after a year apart. (Cathy Wurzer and Alanna Elder, Minnesota Now)

Mississippi

10 Afghan refugees to resettle in Mississippi (Jacob Gallant, WDAM7)
Dr. Greg Yarbrough, an Afghanistan veteran in Northeast Mississippi, has connected with the FBI and immigration officials to help his former interpreter Daud escape from the Taliban. (Ray Van Dusen, Monroe Journal)

Missouri

The International Institute of St. Louis “received an outpouring of donations and announced they are pausing in-kind donations until staff can take inventory and figure out what needs haven’t been met.” (Zara Barker, FOX 2)
The University of Missouri received a $100,000 donation from the Veterans United Foundation, which will be used for pre-evacuation and evacuation costs for the immediate families of the university’s Afghan community. (Grace Nieland, Columbia Missourian)
St. Louis native and former U.S. Army Capt. Charles Mullenger has partnered with the International Institute of St. Louis to raise money for resettling Afghan refugees. (Andrea Smith, Ladue News)
The Missouri group “RAISE” is organizing community support to help Afghan refugees resettle in Joplin. (Jake Kaufman, FOX 2 Now)
Pershing Charitable Trust recently provided the International Institute of St. Louis with a $1.5 million grant “to increase refugee resettlement funds as well as funding for its Immigrant Career Pathways and Immigrant Loan Support programs.” (Diana Barr, St. Louis Business Journal)
The International Institute of St. Louis “is launching a Refugee Command Center in partnership with Welcome Neighbor STL and Oasis International” this week to help streamline Afghan resettlement efforts. (Kayla Drake, St. Louis Public Radio)
Several faith and business organizations in St. Louis, including Arch Grants, are collaborating on a new initiative to support Afghan refugees facing challenges, including a housing shortage and delays in benefits. (Stephanie Rothman, FOX 2)
Oasis International, a St. Louis-area ministry, has helped to resettle 450-500 Afghan refugees as part of their Good Neighbor Initiative. In collaboration with Missouri Baptist churches, “[t]he ministry gave 25-plus new cars to new Afghan refugees, signed 18 Afghan women up for English classes, gave tens of thousands of dollars in grocery gift cards to refugees, and celebrated 10-plus baby showers for Afghan families…” (Ben Hawkins, The Pathway)
Volunteers and staff at Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri Refugee Services, MU Health Care and MU International Programs recently threw a baby shower for expecting Afghan mothers resettled in Missouri. (Ellie Marshall, Columbia Missourian)
Affinia Healthcare and House of Goods are among the organizations welcoming Afghan evacuees to the St. Louis area and focusing on their well-being, including behavioral health. (Justina Coronel, KSDK)
In Kansas City, “the goodwill of ordinary Kansans and Missourians has flourished, growing to meet the needs of our new community members,” Sofia Khan, a doctor and founder of KC for Refugees, writes in the Kansas City Star.
Madeleine Grucza with Welcome Neighbor St. Louis recently connected with Matt Strelo, the owner of Rockin’ Jump Trampoline Park, to welcome Afghan families in the area with a free visit. “This Trampoline Park would be a great place during Ramadan for the kids just to relax and have fun together,” Gruzca said. (Pepper Baker, KSDK)
“Anything is possible here,” said Inamullah Niazai, referring to St. Louis’ Afghan Resettlement Initiative, which has welcomed 6oo arrivals and expects another 750 later this year. “We are so lucky that my family can be here, together.” (Jim Salter, Associated Press)
Ann Wittman of Ellisville, Missouri, has now become immersed in helping Afghan families as a Welcome Neighbor STL volunteer. (Kayla Drake, St. Louis Public Radio)
Rahmatullah Hamdard and Sulaiman Sulaimankhil, Afghan refugees and founders of Hope for Education and Leadership in Afghanistan (HELA), have found their own hope resettling in St. Louis, thanks to the community: “People here were so welcoming. People welcomed us with warm hugs. That gave us a new hope. We started our new life here. We started to have our new home here.” (KMOX)
In St. Louis, the International Institute and its partners provided phones and tablets to 35 Afghan families. “With a community like this that pulls together resources, people can succeed and people will succeed in St. Louis,” said President of the International Institute Arrey Obenson. (Laura Barczewski, KSDK)
Organizations in St. Louis are planning to welcome and resettle an estimated 350 to 1,000 Afghans currently living in Albania, while continuing to support those who have already arrived. (Sydney Stallworth, KSDK)
Guided by her Catholic faith, Ann Wittman of St. Louis began supporting Afghan evacuees arriving in her hometown, going as far as to buy one family a house, and encouraging her fellow churchgoers to join her efforts. “When we’re helping them, we’re doing it because that’s what Jesus told us to do,” Wittman said. (Jonah McKeown, Catholic News Agency)
Since the fall of Kabul, nearly 300 Afghan evacuees have resettled in mid-Missouri. Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri has supported evacuees with job resources, shelter, education workshops and more. (Jamie Holcomb, Columbia Missourian)
Since the fall of Kabul, nearly 300 Afghan evacuees have resettled in mid-Missouri. Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri has supported evacuees with job resources, shelter, education workshops and more. (Jamie Holcomb, Columbia Missourian)
In Missouri, the International Institute in St. Louis is touring the country to attract Afghan refugees to the city, showcasing opportunities for business, employment, and community building. (Andrea Y. Henderson, Louis Public Radio)
Marines who served in Afghanistan continue to work to get Afghan allies out of the country and welcome them to St. Louis. (Tony Messenger, Louis Post-Dispatch)
Resettled Afghans in Missouri are finding cultural spaces through initiatives launched by the International Institute of St. Louis, including the Afghan Community Center and a monthly newspaper. (Gabrielle Hays, PBS NewsHour)
Displaced Afghans in Kansas City are still finding space within a new community, even with an uncertain future. (Mili Mansaray, The Kansas City Beacon)
In St. Louis, community group Welcome Neighbor STL continues to assist new arrivals after responding to many arriving Afghans. Nearby in St. Peters, Missouri, a family member and John Calvin Presbyterian Church are sponsoring a newly arrived Ukrainian family. (Katharina Eggmann, KSDK; Annie Krall, KSDK)  
In St. Louis, a new grant gives a local health care group the ability to assist more displaced Afghans. (Alvin A. Reid, The St. Louis American)
A St. Louis nonprofit, Welcome Neighbor STL, supports refugees through their supper club program. (Charlotte Renner, Feast Magazine)
In Ozark, volunteers in one of Missouri’s largest cities welcomes refugees. (Gregory Holman, KSMU)
Fereshte, a 28-year-old wife and mother who was forced to leave Afghanistan rebuilds a life for her family in Missouri. (Meghan McKinney, KSMU)
Mustafa, then 7, made it out of Afghanistan as the U.S. withdrew and was able to help his family get to the U.S. — but only in recent weeks, and they have yet to reunite. (Frank Morris, KCUR)
In St. Louis, three Afghan entrepreneurs have received grants to start or grow businesses in the city. (Sylvester Brown Jr., The St. Louis American)

Montana

In Missoula, Montana, the International Rescue Committee is working to resettle Afghan allies and families and aid them in finding housing and employment. (Martin Kidston, Missoula Current)
Butte Heart, a volunteer organization in Montana, held a community meeting in preparation to welcome 12 Afghan refugees to the area. (DJ Bauer, ABC FOX Montana)
“These Afghans were our partners,” an Army veteran in Montana writes. “They fought alongside Americans, gave us valuable information, interpreted language and customs, and provided resources we needed to do our jobs. … [I]t is my duty, and the duty of this state with a love for freedom, to assist in resettlement efforts for those who risked so much to help us.” (Op-ed by Chris Enget, The Missoulian)
With the help of several donors, volunteers, and a grant from the Schultz Family Foundation, Montana volunteer organization Butte Heart has housing available for up to 18 refugees for 90 days, along with job opportunities from St. James Hospital. (DJ Bauer, ABC FOX Montana)
In Missoula, Montana, 18 refugee home cooks are running the city’s most in-demand restaurant. (Kate Bernot, New York Times)
Plymouth Congregational Church and 18 co-sponsors will host a free pingpong party Saturday to benefit Afghan evacuees in Helena, Montana. (Kennedy Broadwell, Montana Sports)
A week of celebrations to honor refugees in thecommunity is being planned in Missoula, Montana. (Missoulian)
A pingpong tournament at a church, with 21 co-sponsors, benefited two Afghan families and a Congolese family in Helena, Montana. (Sonny Tapia, Independent Record)

Nebraska

With the help of the Refugee Empowerment Center, an Afghan family of eight will temporarily stay in a fully furnished home of an Airbnb in Omaha, Nebraska. (Michelle Bandur, KETV 7)
Nonprofit Lincoln Literacy in Lincoln, Nebraska, is seeking volunteers, including college students, to teach English and other literacy skills to Afghan refugees. (Jerry Saguin, The Daily Nebraskan)
Safi Rauf, who immigrated to Omaha, Nebraska, in 2010 from a refugee camp in Pakistan, put his studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center on hold to help with evacuation efforts. (Paul Hammel, Omaha World-Herald)
Marine veteran Bob Koenig, who we mentioned yesterday, is wrapping up his nearly 140-mile “Ruck for Refugees” journey across central Nebraska — the same distance his interpreter and family took to get to safety — to raise awareness and funds for Afghan refugees. (WOWT)
Catholic Social Services has helped resettle 75 refugees in Lincoln, Nebraska, many of whom are anxious about family members they had to leave behind. (Bria Battle, 10/11 NOW)
In Lincoln, Nebraska, Jeanette Tiwald sponsored an Afghan family and their baby for Christmas. Thanks to a “parade of strangers,” Tiwald received so many donations she needed a U-Haul truck to transport the goods to Catholic Social Services. (Peter Salter, Lincoln Journal Star)
With help from other volunteers, including 12-year-old Olivia Muffler, Renee Cunningham has helped furnish about 25 homes for Afghan refugees in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Bayley Bischof, KOLN-TV)
Refugee Empowerment Center (REC), one of three refugee resettlement agencies in Nebraska, has partnered with Restoring Dignity and The Furniture Project to collect furniture and other necessities for the 900 Afghan refugees expected to resettle in Omaha by the end of February. (Marlo Lundak, WOWT)
“People like Mohibullah and his brothers and sisters are filled with gratitude,” says Clayton Naff, executive director of Lincoln Literacy in Nebraska, a nonprofit which is helping resettled Afghans adjust. “They bring great vitality to our community, just as refugees and immigrants before them. I am fully confident we will be better off for having welcomed refugees to Lincoln.” (Mary Kay Roth, L Magazine/Lincoln Journal Star)
Nebraska state Sen. Myron Dorn (R) recently introduced a proposal to provide more affordable housing for Afghan refugees. (Bria Battle, KOLN)
More than 200 people — from city council members to school representatives to the police chief — hosted a welcome event for Afghan refugees in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, last weekend. (Will Bauer, Nebraska Public Media)
Since the start of the year, the all-volunteer Lincoln Bike Kitchen in Nebraska has donated more than 50 bikes to local Afghan refugees, meeting a major need. (Peter Salter, Lincoln Journal Star)
United Way of Lincoln and Lancaster County in Nebraska recently extended its donation deadline in hopes of reaching a goal of $400,000 for a Lincoln resettlement fund, which will focus on “expanding transportation support, child care and additional case management” for Afghan, Ukrainian and other refugees in the area. (Evelyn Mejia, Lincoln Journal Star)
In Nebraska, three Afghan high school students graduate in Omaha. They resettled in the city after the fall of Kabul. (6 News WOWT)
A former member of the Afghan Special Forces, Laiq Lackenwall, has found support in Lincoln, Nebraska, through local programs. (Sam Cobb, KOLN)
Afghan refugees reflect on their new lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Fatima Naqi, Nebraska Public Media)

Nevada

Former military interpreters and veterans are hosting a donation drive via the Las Vegas nonprofit Freedom Support Alliance — which was founded by “HK,” an Afghan native who became an interpreter for U.S. Special Forces. (Kim Passoth, KVVU-TV)
Nevada State College will temporarily house three Afghan families on campus “thanks to a $60,000 grant from the county’s rescue plan funds.” (Sophia Perricone, KVVU-TV)

New Hampshire

Hussain Amiri was born in Afghanistan and grew up in a Pakistani refugee camp before arriving in Concord, New Hampshire, in 2016. Now working with the Manchester organization Building Community in New Hampshire, Amiri serves as “a familiar face and friendly voice for the 120-some Afghan refugees” arriving in the area. (Mark Hayward, New Hampshire Union Leader)
A $50,000 grant will help the International Institute of New England support more than 500 evacuees in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as well as future Ukrainian refugees. (Trea Lavery, Lowell Sun)
Two Afghan women judges were honored in New Hampshire for their work on women rights in Afghanistan. They are now resettled in the area. (Christina Dolan, Valley News)
In New Hampshire, theminister of 4 Rivers Church reflects on thepositive impact of welcoming Afghan refugees into his church. (Wes Dillon, NH Journal)

New Jersey

At Liberty Village, a makeshift camp temporarily housing thousands of Afghans at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, local organizations are welcoming residents with music and cookouts. (Tracey Tully, The New York Times)
Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder joined Masbia Soup Kitchen Network CEO Alexander Rapaport to organize the delivery of food and cleaning supplies for Afghan refugees at Fort Dix military base in New Jersey. (Mid Hudson News)
In partnership with the International Rescue Committee, the non-profit Welcome Home Jersey City has helped resettle nine Afghan families in Jersey City, New Jersey, with more to come. (Jake Maher, The Jersey Journal)
In collaboration with two other nonprofits, the Bridge of Books Foundation spearheaded an effort to donate nearly 9,000 books to Afghan families temporarily housed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. (Gloria Stravelli, The Two River Times)
Masbia, a New York-based Jewish nonprofit soup kitchen and food pantry, partnered with Welcome Home Jersey City “to provide satiating quantities of free halal meat to newly arrived Afghan immigrants” in Greenville, New Jersey. (Aaron Morrill, Jersey City Times)
Students at Steinert High School in Hamilton, New Jersey, collected “more than 1000 gently used books for refugee children who are living at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.” (Elizabeth Meyers, TAPinto)
New Jersey resettlement agencies, faith groups, and sponsor circles are looking for more help to resettle Afghan refugees to the state. (Hannan Adely, NorthJersey.com)
“As an engaged university, we act to build the world that we want to live in,” said Jonathan Koppell, the president of Montclair State University in New Jersey, which recently welcomed displaced Afghan scholar Roya Saqib. “I’m one of the lucky ones to have these opportunities, but many are back in Afghanistan, they’re still suffering,” said Saqib. “That’s why I want to work for those who are left behind.” (Marilyn Joyce Lehren, Montclair State University)
Factory Fashion studio is partnering with refugee organizations to provide tailoring jobs to Afghan evacuees. (Sonia Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain PBS)

New Mexico

A Las Cruces church is helping Afghan refugees resettle in New Mexico. (Salina Madrid, KFOX 14)
Afghan refugees have arrived at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico, where they were greeted by personnel cheering and welcome signs. (Associated Press)
The Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, hosts weekly movie nights for Afghans, put on by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Operation Allies Welcome. (Nicole Maxwell, Alamogordo Daily News)
White Rock Presbyterian Church in White Rock, New Mexico, raised over $1,000 for Afghan resettlement in the area and is collaborating with other local churches to sponsor at least one Afghan family who will resettle in Sante Fe soon. (Los Alamos Reporter)
Sante Fe residents have supported newly arriving Afghans with donations and assistance via the nonprofit Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains. Susan Oupadia, a retired doctor who oversees many of the donations, is also co-sponsoring a refugee family for a year. (Scott Wyland, Sante Fe New Mexican)
A group of San Juan County, New Mexico, residents have joined together to become part of the local Sponsor Circle Program for Afghans “to provide financial, logistical, moral and other support” for a newly arrived family. (Mike Easterling, Farmington Daily Times)
In partnership with Lutheran Family Services, the Holy Cross Retreat Center in New Mexico is helping resettle Afghan refugees and welcome asylum seekers from all over the world. “It’s not just praying for the poor and making donations…” said Father Tom Smith, O.F.M. Conv., the center’s director. “It’s about making them feel welcome. Not just ‘here’s your room and here’s your key.’” (J.D. Long-García, America Magazine – The Jesuit Review)
In collaboration with Lutheran Family Services, City of Albuquerque officials have launched a new campaign to help Afghan refugees secure affordable housing in New Mexico. (Colton Shone, KOB 4)
Santa Fe, New Mexico, schools are welcoming new immigrant students through the Newcomer Language Academy and helping them prepare for the upcoming year with English classes and other social activities. This summer, the academy supported about 70 students from all over the world, including 19 from Afghanistan. (Jessica Pollard, Santa Fe New Mexican)

New York

Local organizations are looking to raise $750,000 to support the 350 Afghan refugees coming to Buffalo, New York. (Anthony Reyes, WKBW-TV)
Veterans and local residents in New York’s Hudson Valley donated goods to a Veterans of Foreign Wars post for Afghan refugees on a military base in New Jersey. (News 12 The Bronx)
An Army ROTC student at Syracuse University “created a petition asking SU’s administration to offer scholarships to Afghan refugees.” As of Sunday, it had more than 150 signatures. (Richard Perrins, The Daily Orange)
Syracuse, New York-based Afghan sisters Tamana, Soniiya and Raheleh Tajik prepare homemade Afghan meals monthly to raise money for their campaign, Afghanistan Crisis Fundraisers. (Lacey Leonardi, Spectrum News 1)
Hearts & Homes for Refugees, based in New York’s Hudson Valley region, has been providing Afghans with the support they need to resettle and is currently asking for donations to expand its work in developing sponsorships. (The Hudson Independent)
Several non-profits in Rochester, New York, have joined a community partner program that “pair[s] religious and nonprofit organizations with incoming refugee and new arrival families.” (John Molseed, Post Bulletin)
A story my colleague and SUNY New Paltz alumna Dynahlee will appreciate: Just four weeks after forming, New Paltz for Refugees has raised $26,000 to help resettle Afghan families and has just welcomed a family of seven. (Hudson Valley 1)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) “announced Tuesday that $2 million will be allocated for refugee resettlement services statewide,” as the 1,800 Afghan refugees the state anticipates continue to arrive. (Massarah Mikati, Times Union)
Headquartered in New York, Price Chopper/Market 32 supermarkets is donating $27,000 of gift cards to be split among six organizations supporting Afghan refugees. (WNYT)
Communities in Westchester, New York, including religious organizations, have launched the new nonprofit Ossining for Refugees, which will soon help resettle its first Afghan evacuee. (Martin Wilbur, The Examiner News)
New Paltz for Refugees, an independent group created just three months ago, has helped raise funds to resettle an Afghan family of seven in upstate New York. The network is “now a core group of six volunteers leading about two dozen general volunteers tasked with specific needs like social services, media, education, and fundraising.” (Alexandra Zissu, Times Union)
As part of the Sponsor Circles initiative, Dr. Kathleen Braico helped form an “Adirondack Welcome Circle,” which is helping raise funds to resettle an Afghan family in Glens Falls, New York. (Gretta Hochsprung, The Post-Star)
A group of mosques and Islamic centers in the Albany, New York, area have banded together to help welcome 300-plus Afghan evacuees who have arrived since September, and “[a]rea residents of many faiths have come forward to help.” (Azra Haqqie, The Times Union)
The Western New York Refugee and Asylee Consortium has so far raised $950,000 to help resettle Afghan families in the area. (Natalie Fahmy, NBC 7 Buffalo)
Interfaith communities in Broome County, New York, have stepped up to sponsor two Afghan refugee families resettling in the area. (Thomas Picciano, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)
A $65,000 grant from the nonprofit Interfaith Works CNY is helping Afghan arrivals with housing and employment needs in Syracuse, New York. (Katie Zilcosky, WAER)
For Afghan refugees temporarily housed at a hotel in Albany, New York, weekly meals prepared by volunteers with the Muslim Soup Kitchen Project have been a welcome taste of home. (Massarah Mikati, Times Union)
During Mission Month, students and faculty at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, are helping an Afghan family of seven get settled. (Pete McHugh, Manhattan College)
“We had staff literally at the airport seven days a week. Greeting refugees, helping them come to their first apartment in the U.S. here in Syracuse, making sure those apartments were available and that we had food, clothing, and all the things you need to do to get off to a good start,” said Michael Melara, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of Onondaga County in New York. (Amanda Hull, CNY Central)
Syracuse City School District teacher Zac Lois, who helped organize an event to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with Afghan refugees, called it “an excellent opportunity for local resettlement agencies and veterans’ organizations to welcome Afghans to Syracuse who served as interpreters for U.S. forces and Afghans who supported the U.S. over the past 20 years.” (JeanneTyler Moodee Lockman, CNY Central)
In New York City, city groups are trying to fill in where federal support for Ukrainian and Afghan arrivals is falling short. (Lauren Hilgers and Joshua Rashaad McFadden with photos, The New York Times Magazine)
Pastor Andrew Hinman will go on an almost 20-hour bike ride from Oswego to Silver Bay in New York, raising funds to help Oswego Welcomes New Americans sponsor an Afghan family of five. (Xiana Fontno, Oswego County News Now)
Resettled Afghan youth are finding community in skateboarding, thanks to nonprofit Skateistan, a new pilot program in Rochester, New York. “I’m so happy, I’m skateboarding, I’m teaching, and also I’m learning,” said Farzad Sharafi, an instructor with the program. (Gino Fanelli, CITY News)
Resettled Afghan Farzad Sharafi and his wife are settling into their new home in Rochester, New York, with help from local faith nonprofits Catholic Charities Family and Community Services and Saint’s Place in Pittsford. “Saint’s Place support me with warm boots, warm shoes, and everything is good,” said Sharafi, whose work building community through skateboard was recently covered in Rochester’s CITY News. (Randy Gorbman, WXXI)
In Eggertsville, New York, nonprofit Wheels4Workers is offering bikes to refugees to help with transportation needs: “The bikes are donated by the public, fixed up by Wheels4Workers volunteers, and then are given to refugees for free.” (Revathi Janaswamy, Spectrum News 1)
Partnering with Accenture, Welcome.us and Human Rights First, Google hosted an asylum clinic at its headquarters in New York City, pairing 22 Afghans with volunteer attorneys and support staff to help with their applications. (Sophie Salmore, Human Rights First)
With support from a relief agency, Sayed Sadat, who formerly worked at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, is now helping emergency room patients at the local Rochester Regional Health Hospital in New York. (Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC)
Partnering with Accenture, Welcome.us and Human Rights First, Google hosted an asylum clinic at its headquarters in New York City, pairing 22 Afghans with volunteer attorneys and support staff to help with their applications. (Sophie Salmore, Human Rights First)
Thanks to Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, a beneficiary of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, Abdul Bahar and his family were able to find housing, employment, and myriad of other services. (Kristen Bayrakdarian, The New York Times)
Army veteran John Paluska has been striving for two years to bring his Afghan comrade Habib to the U.S., despite multiple bureaucratic obstacles. (Beth Bailey, Fox News)
In New York City, Hosanna City of Refuge Church is welcoming and assisting Muslim migrants. (Fiona André, Religion News Service) 
After starting over in Portugal, a group of young Afghan musicians is touring again — including at Carnegie Hall yesterday and the Kennedy Center. (Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR)
Expanding its housing of migrants, a Catholic retreat center in Queens, New York, has welcomed four Afghan women. (Paula Katinas, The Tablet)
Three years after escaping Kabul, lawyer Nargis Baran makes a life for herself in New York City. (Karen Zraick, The New York Times)
After escaping the Taliban with her family and trekking from Brazil to the U.S. border, Zahra Shahnoory has graduated from a New York City high school. (Andy Weir and Erin McLaughlin, NBC News)
In Brentwood, New York, refugees Karim from Afghanistan and Valerie from Ukraine share their resettlement experience with the support of the Sisters of St. Joseph. (Zoe Kourajian, U.S. Catholic)
From Mazar to Manhattan: How a young couple escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan (Monica Haider, CNN)

North Carolina

Two North Carolina military wives and a local business have teamed up with Welcome House Raleigh to collect supplies and donations for newly arrived Afghan refugees. (Chris Lovingood, WRAL)
From Duke University classrooms to the town’s resettlement agencies, Durham, North Carolina, is helping welcome new Afghan arrivals. (Adejuwon Ojebuoboh, The Duke Chronicle)
Military veteran Alaya Shank is among caseworkers in Charlotte, North Carolina, who are helping refugees “navigate things like getting a license or purchasing a car” in addition to other requests. (Jamal Goss, Fox 46 Charlotte)
Literacy Together of Asheville, North Carolina, is looking for volunteers to help tutor incoming Afghan refugees. (ABC 13)
“Johnny,” a combat interpreter who helped American troops adapt to Afghan culture, has been resettled in Charlotte, N.C. — welcomed by Sen. Thom Tillis (R), among others. (WSOC-TV)
Larry Hovis, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina in Winston-Salem, and Chris Mitchell Hovis, an active member of Zebulon Baptist Church, drove 160 miles across the eastern part of the state over the weekend to “raise money and awareness for refugee housing needs in North Carolina as many Afghans continue to arrive over the next few weeks.” (Laura Brache, The News & Observer)
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-North Carolina) and his team have helped 80 Afghan allies safely relocate to the U.S. (Trevor Dunnell, Sun Journal)
This week in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the Resters and Siddiqis, a military family and Afghan family, “will celebrate Thanksgiving together – that most American holiday, with its togetherness and traditions and cornucopia of plenty – as a new family divided by language but connected by love.” (Danielle Dreilinger, The Fayetteville Observer)
College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, along with other groups in Triad, helped the first Afghan refugees resettle in the area. Efforts to welcome new arrivals included “driving them to the grocery store, helping to navigate setting up the discount cable that helps them connect to stations in their language, and using an online translation app to communicate.” (Nancy McLaughlin, Greensboro News & Record)
North Carolina’s new state budget includes a $250,000 grant for Interpreting Freedom Foundation, supports former military interpreters as they resettle in the U.S. (A.P. Dillon, The North State Journal)
Village Fabric shop in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, auctioned a welcome blanket made by the community for a little more than $1,300, which went to Church World Service to support their Afghan resettlement efforts. (Taylor Neuman, Spectrum News)
Medical and dental students from Campbell University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill volunteered at a health clinic on Saturday to provide Afghan evacuees awaiting refugee status with medical and dental care. (Hayley Fixler, CBS 17)
High Point University students in North Carolina donated $16,000 to World Relief Triad to help with Afghan resettlement. (High Point University)
Marc Capon, co-owner of Harvest Records in Asheville, North Carolina, has raised over $30,000 and contacted Catholic Charities to offer his house to Afghan refugees arriving in the area. (Nick Buffo, Spectrum News)
In less than one week, community volunteers in Charlotte, North Carolina, “worked to collect donations — thousands of dollars of groceries, boxes full of PediaSure, Ensure, multivitamins, and other essential items added to Amazon and Walmart wish lists” for Afghan refugees in need. (Briana Harper, WCNC)
Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, North Carolina, is co-sponsoring an Afghan family. (Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service)
North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools International Center is working with two resettlement agencies to enroll eligible Afghan students in school, where they’re assigned a mentor and a laptop. (Shamarria Morrison, WCNC Charlotte)
In Asheville, North Carolina, a variety of community organizations and churches are assisting Afghan refugees “with groceries, medical appointments, and laundry, as well as church vans providing transportation” — as is the Islamic Center of Asheville, which has doubled in size in recent months. (Maggie Phillips, Tablet magazine)
Over the course of five months, Nasreen Khwaja of Charlotte, North Carolina, volunteered to interpret, process, and help acclimate Afghan refugees temporarily housed at the Fort Dix, New Jersey, military base. (Derek Dellinger, Queen City News)
Hundreds of Afghans gathered in traditional attire at Reedy Creek Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, to celebrate Nowruz, the Afghan New Year — for most, it’s the first time celebrating away from home. (Sydney Heiberger, Queen City News)
Elshan Moridiabadi, a chess grandmaster living in Durham, North Carolina, gave Afghan refugee students at a Raleigh elementary school an opportunity to learn chess online. “This is something that really gives them a little familiarity with something that they love, as simple as the game of chess,” said Chris Cox, principal of Stough Magnet Elementary School. (Rick Armstrong, WRAL)
Hickory Grove United Methodist Church in east Charlotte, North Carolina, partnered with a group of Latin American organizations to set up a donation closet with “good quality clothing, toiletries and other essential items,” in hopes of “assist[ing] immigrants who arrive in Charlotte with little money and few possessions. (Kayla Young, WFAE)
A Ramadan celebration hosted by the Islamic Society of Greater Charlotte in North Carolina helped raise money for arriving refugees. (Elvis Menayese, WFAE)
In North Carolina, the Vietnamese refugee community is rallying around Afghan refugees, using their common experience to help newly arrived immigrants navigate their new lives in the U.S. (Marielle Argueza, Next City)

North Dakota

A group of North Dakota airmen, nicknamed the Happy Hooligans, are providing base operational support and other supplementary services to Afghans temporarily located in Wisconsin and New Jersey. (David Olsen, Grand Forks Herald)
Fargo, North Dakota-area employers like glass window manufacturing plant Cardinal I-G “are jumping at the opportunity to partner with the refugees and fill thousands of job openings in the state.” (Madison Quinn, KFGO)
Local organizations in North Dakota including Global Neighbors in Bismarck and the Evangelical Bible Church in Dickinson are helping Afghan refugees resettle. The State Department has approved the resettlement of an additional “69 Afghan evacuees in the Fargo area, 15 in the Bismarck area and 12 in the Dickinson area.” (Jeremy Turley, Inforum News Service)
Thanks to a dated recommendation letter from American Army platoon leader George Mackin, Afghan soldier “Saeed” was able to flee Afghanistan and reunite with Mackin, a person he calls his “brother,” in Bismarck, North Dakota. Mackin has since started a GoFundMe to help Saeed’s family, who are still stuck in Afghanistan. (Jeremy Turley, Forum News Service)
People who fled Ukraine as well as Afghanistan are finding welcome and hope in North Dakota. (Mark Martin, Christian Broadcasting Network)

Ohio

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) says the state is ready to welcome Afghan refugees. (Andy Chow, WKSU)
A northeast Ohio native and gold star wife launched an Emergency Fund for Displaced Afghan People to help at-risk Afghan refugees. (Karlynn Wells, Spectrum News 1)
More than 100 Ohio lawyers have volunteered to help Afghans at risk come to the U.S. (Yilun Cheng, The Columbus Dispatch)
In collaboration with US Together, synagogues in Columbus, Ohio, are stepping up to help Afghan refugees, from resettlement to donations to community sponsorships with faith-based organizations. (Ellen Braunstein, Cleveland Jewish News)
Greater Cincinnati groups like Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio and Kentucky Refugee Ministries are partnering up to welcome Afghan refugees across the city. (Cincinnati Public Radio)
The Cleveland-based Refugee Response organization has stepped in to resettle almost 300 Afghans in the area, including assistance “with education, cultural fluency and employment,” and more. (Jason Brill, Cleveland Magazine)
For an episode of Only In America, Ali Noorani spoke with Matt Carpenter and Rick Stockburger, Ohio veterans of the war in Afghanistan, about the importance of evacuating Afghan allies. This is an episode you don’t want to miss.
The Columbus City Council approved a new initiative called the “Afghan Neighbors Rental Assistance Fund, [which] will set aside $50,000 to cover rent costs for Afghan families should they default.” (Yilun Cheng, The Columbus Dispatch)
In partnership with Project Seva, part of the Federation of India Community Associations, Indian immigrant Gauri Wagle has “been donating boxes full of essential items to help Afghan refugees start their lives here in Ohio.” (Jade Nash, Spectrum News 1)
In partnership with Neighborhood Family Practice, some clinical staff members in Cleveland, Ohio, are volunteering extra time to provide medical care for incoming Afghan refugees. (Anna Huntsman, ideastream)
Three University High School seniors launched a donation drive through their new nonprofit, YouthUp, collecting $30,000 worth of necessary goods to support Afghan resettlement in Northeast Ohio. (Tracy Carloss, WEWS)
A media and apparel company, a faith-based nonprofit and a church teamed up to organize “Cleveland For All,” an event that offered Clevelanders the opportunity to welcome and learn about the more than 600 Afghan refugees who have resettled in the city. (Jessi Schulz, News 5 Cleveland)
With support from a U.S. Marine, Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains in Denver, and a family connection in Cincinnati, three young Afghan female athletes are settling into their new home in Ohio. (Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati Enquirer)
After the Cleveland nonprofit partnership Joseph House reached out to over 25 bike shops to obtain bikes for resettled Afghans, Ohio City Bicycle Co-op donated several bikes and “offered to fit each bike to its intended recipient and make sure they were safe and roadworthy.” (Alexis Oatman, cleveland.com)
With the help of Northeast Ohio Navy veteran Ken Harbaugh and other volunteers, “[m]ore than 200 Afghan refugees will be treated to a halal Thanksgiving thanks to donations and help from Assad’s Bakery, Kifaya’s Kitchen and mothers in Cleveland’s Afghan community.” (Cameron Fields, Cleveland.com)
A group of University of Cincinnati Clermont College students, paralegals and lawyers helped process 100 humanitarian visa applications for Afghan refugees in November. “It’s not getting better for those waiting; it’s getting worse,” said student paralegal Barbara Rugen. “… I will probably come back to UC Clermont and do this again.” (Cincinnati Edition)
In Cleveland, disaster relief nonprofit Team Rubicon continues to help newly arrived Afghan families secure housing, with nearly 30 volunteers “meeting multiple days per week to collect donated items, manage inventory, and move families into their new homes.”
In Northeast Ohio, faith organizations and local nonprofit U.S. Together are sponsoring Afghan and Ukrainian refugees to help cover expenses including health care, job training, transportation, financial literacy and rent. (Charita M. Goshay, The Repository)
In Ohio, Avon Lake United Church of Christ’s welcome of an Afghan family serves as a shining example of immigrant welcome the denomination is looking to expand. “The UCC urgently needs churches to consider dedicating ministerial time and resources to asylum concerns as policies and migration patterns are rapidly changing at the southern border,” said Rev. Irene Willis Hassan, minister for refugee and migration ministries. (Connie Larkman, United Church of Christ)
In Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, local organizations are pairing up with nonprofit US Together to co-sponsor Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. The local groups “essentially act as community-level resettlement agencies,” per Lee Columber II, community engagement manager at US Together. (Becky Raspe, Cleveland Jewish News)
In Cleveland, nonprofit US Together partnered with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to create a Microenterprise Development program to help “eligible refugees and immigrants develop, finance, and expand small businesses.” (Aja Hannah and Lee Chilcote, The Land)
“It’s really fun to get them out in the community and participate in America’s favorite pastime,” said Rachel Gorman, a Toledo, Ohio, native who volunteered to take a group of resettled Afghans to their first Toledo Mud Hens baseball game on Wednesday. (Willie Daniely III, WTVG)
The Welcome Dayton community initiative recently held an Afghan welcome event at the Dayton, Ohio, Metro Library to connect newcomers with organizations assisting with education, employment, and immigration. (Jason Reynolds, WYSO)
In Ohio, a Ukrainian child refugees’ choir will perform in a benefit concert to support the Frontline Medical Ukraine Fund. (Peter Gill, The Columbus Dispatch)
An immigrant himself, Fab Glass and Mirror co-founder Ahmed Mady has hired 18 refugee employees through Ohio nonprofit Community Refugee & Immigration Services. (Jennifer Conrad, Inc.) 
In Akron, Ohio, a Ukrainian refugee finds assistance through Grace Bible Church’s International Welcome (Luke Gehm, KentWired.com)
In Ohio, the new Welcome Center for Immigrants and Refugees in Cuyahoga County provides a supportive environment for community growth and integration. (John Kosich, News 5 Cleveland)
An Afghan translator who assisted Ohio-based members of the military is an example of the kind of people the city of Barberton will be able to help thanks to a new partnership. (Alan Ashworth, Akron Beacon Journal)

Oklahoma

The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City is working with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese Oklahoma City to prepare for hundreds of Afghan families arriving in the city. (Lionel Ramos, Oklahoma Watch)
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City will be welcoming 1,800 Afghan evacuees soon. (Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service)
Dr. Arlita Harris, executive director for the Immigration Center at Western Oaks Church of the Nazarene, writes that Oklahoma should welcome Afghan refugees. (The Oklahoman)
Alyssa McClellan of Owasso, Oklahoma, has dedicated her extra office space to store donations for Afghan refugees, which she’s been organizing throughout her community. (Art Haddaway, Owasso Reporter)
In collaboration with Khan Ohana Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, several volunteers are cooking traditional Afghan meals for incoming refugees to feel “loved and welcome.” (Tim Stanley, Tulsa World)
Oklahoma State University and Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma are collaborating to resettle 40 Afghan families in the state. (Hicham Raache, KFOR)
Tulsa, Oklahoma’s, Metropolitan Ministry and the Jewish Federation of Tulsa are collaborating on a “Warm the Soles” Sock Drive for Afghans in need of warm clothes this winter. (News On 6)
The community at Trinity Woods, a senior living center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has partnered with local churches and Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma to provide housing and help resettle 800 Afghans in the Tulsa area. (Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnight’s Senior Living)
Volunteers and staff at Catholic Charities in Stillwater, Oklahoma, are “working to get apartments furnished, stocked and ready to go” in anticipation of resettling 40 families. (Michelle Charles, Stillwater News Press)
By the end of February, Oklahoma is expected to receive a total of 1,000 refugees, with dozens of Afghan refugees arriving to the state over the next week. For months, nonprofit CAIR Oklahoma has provided new arrivals with welcome kits and baskets, food, and other services. (Evan Onstot, KOCO 5 News)
The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma is feeding 300 Afghan refugees weekly. “It becomes a sense of safety and love,” said Jeff Marlow, who is with the organization. (Sawyer Buccy, News On 6)
Volunteer teams have been collecting donations and organizing to welcome Afghan refugees as they arrive at Tulsa International Airport. (Tim Stanley, Tulsa World)
Catholic Charities is helping find homes and basic essentials for incoming Afghan refugees in Tulsa, OK. (Dominique O’Neill, News On 6)
Hundreds of volunteers are getting together to receive Green County, OK’s first Afghan refugees. (Alex Cash, FOX 23)
After resettling in Oklahoma thanks to a partnership between Oklahoma State university and Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma (CCEOK) dubbed the Afghan Family Project, Tayyab Ghazniwal was recently “hired by Stillwater Public Schools as a translator for the Afghan students.” His main goal? “[T]o bring education back to Afghanistan.” (Mack Burke, OSU)
Oklahoma has welcomed one thousand Afghan refugees through Catholic Charities-OKC’s resettlement program since mid-September, according to agency on Wednesday. “This milestone is certainly a huge victory, but we must be mindful moving forward that creating an equitable community for them is far from over,” said Carly Akard, Catholic Charities’ communications director. (Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)
Islamic Relief USA recently donated $17,950 to the Khan Ohana Foundation, a local food pantry in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “The donation will help Afghan refugees receive hot, nutritious meals while they continue to adapt to life in America.” (FOX23.com)
Wakil Qazizada and his brother Wali Khan, along with their families, had a choice: leave Afghanistan or die. Now they have started new lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they have been received warmly. (Tim Stanley, Tulsa World)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, recently received “two grants totaling $160,000 which will provide bus passes, driver’s education and contextualized English classes for Afghan refugees all to help them integrate socially and provide economic mobility.” (Amanda Slee, KJRH)
In the past three weeks, the Oklahoma Dental Foundation has offered dental care to Afghan refugees via its Mobiles Smiles unit. (Kilee Thomas, KOCO 5 News)
71 Afghan refugees have resettled in Stillwater, many in university housing. Through the Oklahoma State University CARES program, English professors and graduate students help refugees “learn basic English, conversational English, and English for the workplace,” and churches and others in the community are helping fill gaps in support. (Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)
Global nonprofit Room to Read will give more than 51,000 children’s books with themes related to refugee resettlement to Afghan families in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and elsewhere in the U.S. to “help children process their experience of adjusting to a new home and culture.” (Kelsey Kane, FOX23 News)
The First United Methodist Church of Claremore in Oklahoma is sponsoring two recently arrived Ukrainian families, having raised money to help with paperwork, airfare and apartment furnishings. (Chinh Doan, News on 6)
“We can do better,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said after hearing about unsanitary conditions at an apartment complex where resettled Afghans live. The governor also spoke of his state’s welcome of more than 1,800 Afghans: “I had a lot of our military personnel that fought over there … reaching out saying, ‘Hey, we can’t leave these folks behind and helpless’ — and so we wanted to open up. It’s just kind of the Oklahoma Standard,” Stitt said. “So we welcome them to Oklahoma.” (Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)
In Oklahoma City, a food pantry provides Halal food to Afghan refugees to make them feel welcome. (Hannah France, KGOU)
A casino in Shawnee, Oklahoma, is joining other organizations to support Afghan refugees. (Carla Hinton, The Oklahoman)
A partnership in Tulsa, Oklahoma, leads to new opportunities for Afghans and other newcomers. (Lauren Henry, KTUL)
In Tulsa, Afghan soccer player Azatullah Haidari is finding his way after starting a new life with his family in the U.S. (Ben Abrams, Public Radio Tulsa)
Feroz Bashari — the former Afghan government’s spokesman and a longtime coalition translator — speaks about his life in Afghanistan and his journey to Oklahoma. (Dale Denwalt, The Oklahoman)

Oregon

The Refugee Care Collective, a local organization that works with resettlement agencies, has raised more than $82,000 to support arriving Afghan families in Oregon. (Jaimie Ding, OregonLive)
Catholic Community Services of Lane County and the Refugee Resettlement Coalition are preparing to help a family of Afghan refugees arriving in Eugene through the help of a veteran, while Oregon politicians are pushing the Biden administration to lift the United States’ refugee admissions capacity (Alexis Weisend, Daily Emerald)
Catholic Charities of Oregon’s Refugee Services is welcoming Afghan refugees at airports with the phrase “Khosh-Amadaid,” which translates to “happy arrival” in Farsi. In addition to airport runs, they’re assisting with reunification services and assisting families with newborns. (Kristen Hannum, Catholic Sentinel)
The Oregon Department of Human Services’ Refugee Program recently provided $2.8 million for nonprofits and community groups helping with Afghan resettlement efforts. (Mike Sunnucks, Herald and News)
In Oregon, a former military interpreter who fled Afghanistan is helping displaced families resettle. (Deborah Bloom, The Oregonian)
The Oregon Department of Human Services’ Refugee Program announced it has $3.6 million in grants for health care, legal assistance, housing and youth mentoring for Afghans. (Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) “said nearly 50 of the state’s Air National Guard service members have been activated to support Afghan ally refuge efforts around the country.” (Fox 29)
A local business owner in DuBois, Pennsylvania, raised more than $3,500 for Afghan refugees via a patriotic t-shirt fundraiser. (WCED News)
Members of the Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh collaborated with evangelical Christian and Muslim volunteers to cook Afghan meals for new arrivals relocating to nearby Monroeville. (WTAE)
Volunteers with the International Service Center in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area have “put out a call for canned and shelf stable foods — along with clothing and household donations” to accommodate Afghans longing for homemade meals. (Ivey DeJesus, Penn Live)
Hello Neighbor, a nonprofit organization in Pittsburgh, recently received a federal grant to help resettle refugees, including Afghan evacuees. (Briana Smith, KDKA)
Church World Service is launching an office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to expand its network of support for refugees, including new Afghan arrivals. (Maddie Gittens, The Burg)
Jewish Family Services of Greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is partnering with several local organizations in preparation to resettle up to six Afghan families early next year. (Candace Scalese, CBS 21)
With the help of nonprofit Hello Neighbor in Pittsburgh, teen Eli Olifson “baked 814 cookies, brownies and muffins” ahead of his bar mitzvah to welcome Afghan refugees to the community. (Adam Reinherz, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)
Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Danville, Pennsylvania, is seeking help from the community to secure a home for an Afghan family awaiting resettlement. (Joe Sylvester, The Danville News)
In partnership with Catholic Charities, “a myriad of Harrisburg-based organizations and agencies are drawing together, collaborating to help relocate Afghan refugees to new homes and services in the area.” (Deborah Lynch, TheBurg)
In Pennsylvania, the Afghan Sponsor Circle of Greater Reading plans to help an Afghan family resettling in the area — and raised $8,000 via a fundraiser Tuesday at the Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery. (Jack Reinhard, WFMZ)
An Afghan refugee family named their newborn after Selli Abdali, a volunteer at the Philadelphia International Airport with Afghan heritage, who urged U.S. officials to treat and transfer the extended family together as a single unit. (Jeff Gammage, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
In partnership with State College, Pennsylvania’s University Baptist and Brethren Church, University Mennonite Church and Congregation Brit Shalom are sponsoring an Afghan refugee family, helping them “find jobs, housing, and healthcare.” (Danny Gotwals, The Daily Collegian)
Hanzala Hadi, age 2, and his parents have reunited in the U.S. after his parents had to leave him behind as they escaped Afghanistan. (Dan De Luce, NBC News)
Syrian restaurant Khalil’s has partnered with the nonprofit Hello Neighbor to help welcome Afghan refugees to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and provide them with jobs. (Alecia Taylor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Nonprofits ARYSE and the Jewish Family and Community Services are helping Afghan youth and their families resettle in the Pittsburgh area, supporting them with English language development, mental health resources and homework help. (Sarah Schneider, WESA)
Sue Corl, founder and director of Crown of Beauty International ministry in Philadelphia, draws on her experience living abroad to highlight the importance of welcoming the stranger, including our new Afghan neighbors. (Sue Corl, The Christian Post)
Jill Goldstein works on encouraging her neighbors in Philadelphia to join her in sponsoring refugees through theWelcome Corps program. (Rachel Wisniewski, ThePhiladelphia Citizen)
In Erie, Pennsylvania, Saeedullah Taraky takes up the position of the city’s liaison to the new American/immigrant communities just two years after escaping from Afghanistan. (Kevin Flowers, Go Erie)
In Allentown, Pennsylvania, an Afghan family found great support and a deep friendship from their landlord. (Andreas Pelekis, The Morning Call)

Rhode Island

To welcome new arrivals, residents of the Ocean State “penned 165 letters for Afghan evacuees as part of the ‘Dear Rhode Island’ program” launched by Jessica David of the nonprofit What Cheer Writers Club. (Edward Fitzpatrick, Boston Globe)
We should all aspire to friendships like the one between Amin Faqiry and Jonathan Dator. (Antonia Noori Farzan, The Providence Journal)
Raised in just 10 days, nearly $1.5 million will go to Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to support refugee resettlement efforts. (Antonia Noori Farzan, The Providence Journal)
In partnership with Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies and the Refugee Dream Center in Providence, Rhode Island, scholars and staff are conducting month-long interviews with Afghan refugees to assess their needs and “improve military-civilian partnerships across the globe.” (Jill Kimball, Brown University)
Providence, Rhode Island-based nonprofit Beautiful Day is providing on-the-job training to Afghans evacuees and other refugees working in their kitchen, as Rebecca Garland and Ellen Emerson White highlight in their Providence Journal op-ed.

South Carolina

In partnership with Lutheran Services of the Carolinas, 14-year-old Eric Chirolla, an aspiring Eagle Scout, and his troop are helping Afghan refugees resettle. (Matt Kaufax, FOX Carolina)
14-year-old Riverside Middle School student Eric Chirolla has been assisting with Afghan donation and resettlement efforts for his Eagle Scout project. On Monday, his Eagle Scout troop helped move in two refugee families. (Matt Kaufax, FOX Carolina)
An Afghan family expecting twins was recently able to resettle in Clemson, South Carolina after weeks waiting for permanent housing with the help of Open Arms Refugee Ministry. (ABC News) In relsted news: Tim Cross of Open Arms told WYFF News 4: “There’s some rumors going around in these military bases that South Carolina might not be a good place, that [Afghan evacuees] might not be treated friendly here and so we wanted to dispel that. We want to show that we are welcoming state.”
Mission Charleston in South Carolina is working with a multitude of churches to help more than 100 Afghan refugees resettle in the area. “The mission of the church really is to love our neighbor as ourself,” said lay director Craig Tuck. “As refugees began to come to greater Charleston, it was an opportunity to bring churches together.” (Brodie Hart, WCIV)

South Dakota

Sioux Falls restaurant owner hopes Afghan evacuees can someday resettle in South Dakota (Perry Groten, Keloland)
Here’s how South Dakota could join the effort to help resettle Afghan refugees (Trevor J. Mitchell, Argus Leader)

Tennessee

Middle Tennessee veterans are working to rescue Americans and allies left behind via their humanitarian group Patriot Mountain. (Elizabeth Lane, WKRN-TV)
The Nashville International Center for Empowerment and Catholic Charities announced Tuesday that they are preparing for the arrival of hundreds of Afghan refugees. (Natalie Neysa Alund, Nashville Tennessean)
Several local advocacy groups have collaborated to launch the Welcoming Nashville Fund, with a goal of raising $300,000 for “resettlement needs, including trauma counseling, help with housing and groceries.” (Adam Tamburin, Axios)
Volunteers at Central Baptist Church of Fountain City and St. John XXIII University Parish have helped Afghan refugees resettle in Knoxville, Tennessee, in partnership with West Lonsdale Baptist Church, which offers English language instruction. (Georgiana Vines, The Knoxville News Sentinel)
Resettlement agencies in Tennessee have welcomed more than 300 of the 600 Afghan evacuees they anticipate by February, and they are balancing immediate and longer-term needs. (Liam Adams, Nashville Tennessean)
A new nonprofit, Tennessee Resettlement Aid, is helping Afghan refugees find jobs and mentors. The organization “is looking for more ways to help the new Afghan community in the city moving forward, including trying to find a way to facilitate the evacuation of family members still in Afghanistan.” (Will Chappell and Mike Osborne, WMOT)
The Islamic Center of Nashville and the Salahadeen Center are among the mosques and community groups spearheading “initiatives to support the Afghan community during Ramadan,” including Ramadan education and iftar dinner events through May 2. (Liam Adams, Nashville Tennessean)
A resettled Afghan is bringing his country’s cuisine to a Knoxville, Tennessee, food hall. (Ella Wales, WATE)
In Knoxville, Tennessee, Mohamad Hamdard started a restaurant that celebrates his culture with the help of a local (Ryan Connors, WBIR)
In Knoxville, Tennessee, a former Afghan interpreter has reunited with his family and celebrates his culture through his new restaurant. (Heather Ryerson, Inside of Knoxville)
In Knoxville, Tennesse, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame is honoring a program that has helped resettle women from the Afghanistan national women’s basketball team. (Cora Hall, Knoxville News Sentinel)

Texas

Catholic Charities in San Antonio is ramping up its humanitarian mission to accommodate 350 Afghan refugees soon. (Zack Briggs, KENS 5)
In Texas, Fort Bliss is working with nonprofit organizations like El Paso Office of New Americans, the Armed Forces YMCA El Paso, and the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, Inc. to provide donations for Afghan refugees. (KFOX 14)
Also in Houston, volunteers at the Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston donated six cars to Afghan refugee families. “With reliable transportation, our newest neighbors can search for jobs, travel to work and school, make their appointments, shop for groceries and tend to the needs of their family members quickly and efficiently,” said Interfaith Ministries’ president and CEO, Martin B. Cominsky. (Jewish Herald-Voice)
“The way I look at it is, we’re just helping our friends and neighbors,” said U.S. Air Force veteran Pat Jopling, who is helping Afghans resettle in San Antonio, Texas, alongside other volunteers with Soldiers’ Angels. (Zack Briggs, KENS 5)
While arriving Afghans wait to be processed, soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, have paired up with evacuees to teach language classes to both adults and children. (El Paso Herald-Post)
Mattress Firm has committed to donating $50,000 and 450 mattresses to “support the resettlement efforts for Afghan refugees in Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas, and around the U.S.” (Sheila Long O’Mara, Furniture Today)
School officials in Fort Worth, Texas, are helping resettled Afghan students enroll in the district’s International Newcomer Academy, a school for refugee students and others who have recently immigrated to the U.S. (Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Tony Evans, founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas and founder and president of The Urban Alternative, makes a strong case to welcome Afghan refugees, writing that resettlement “presents a unique opportunity for Christians to follow Christ’s model of compassion and hospitality.” (The Dallas Morning News)
In Dallas and several other major cities, Church World Service’s Afghan Placement and Assistance program “aims to help refugees who are staying in temporary Airbnb housing transition into permanent homes, as well helping them navigate a new life in the U.S.” (Alex Gonzalez, Dallas Observer)
Texas Woman’s University recently joined Welcome.us in announcing the Welcome Campus Network, which “will amplify the work of higher education institutions to welcome and support newly arrived Afghan refugees” with scholarships, housing, and more. (TWU)
A class of sixth graders at Deerpark Middle School in Austin, Texas, collaborated with local animator Kristen Maxwell to write welcome letters to Afghan refugees — and bring them to life through video. (Kelsey Thompson, KXAN)
In partnership with Refugee Services of Texas, Ann Finch voluntarily rallied a network of small local churches in Western Travis County to help furnish apartments for newly arriving Afghan refugees. (Sarah Asch and Sidney Josephs, Austin American-Statesman)
Catholic Charities in Dallas, Texas, recently partnered with Break Bread, Break Borders to offer authentic Afghan meals to newly arriving Afghan refugees. (Michelle Aslam, NPR)
Resurgent Church in San Antonio hosted a job fair for an estimated 200 Afghan refugees, who applied for job openings at the J.W. Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa. (Jessie Degollado, KSAT 12 News)
American Gateways and the Texas Here to Stay Coalition recently hosted the first of several clinics to help Afghan refugees understand the asylum and immigration process in Austin. (Luz Moreno-Lozano, Austin American-Statesman)
Twenty Fort Worth firefighters climbed 100 flights of stairs on Monday to raise money for Afghan refugee families. (Malini Basu, WFAA)
Travis Heights Elementary School in Austin, Texas, is raising money via a thrift store, with donations and proceeds going to Afghan refugee children in need. (Asher Price, Axios Austin)
For Eid al-Fitr, a celebration marking the end of the month of Ramadan, many Houston Muslims are donating to local organizations supporting Afghan refugees as a form of zakat, “the giving of alms to those in need.” (Sam González Kelly, Houston Chronicle)
With support from the city of San Antonio and a $150,000 grant from Open Society Foundations, Texas non-profit Culturingua will help Afghan refugees resettle and integrate into the community via workforce development and entrepreneurship training programs. (Edmond Ortiz, Community Impact)
The nonprofit Global Impact Initiative in Austin, Texas, recently launched a new program to help refugees obtain commercial driver’s licenses, pointing toward jobs in the trucking industry. Forty-two refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, already have signed up. (Conner Board, KVUE)
The Afghan Village Restaurant and Market in San Antonio, Texas, has become a hub for Afghan newcomers, according to restaurant owner and former Afghan refugee, Essa Yousafzai. “We try to be authentic as much as possible and get anything the Afghan community over here needs.” (Amber Hughes, Spectrum News 1)
With the help of staff at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, 20 Afghan students at Heights High School and their families are acclimating to life in the U.S. (Adam Zuvanich, The Leader)
Asylum seekers are struggling to survive in Juárez, Mexico, as they wait for the U.S. to officially repeal Title 42, reports Julian Resendiz for Border Report. Meanwhile, in an op-ed for The Hill, immigration attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr highlights Title 42’s dangers. Separately, Emily Van Fossen of the Niskanen Center notes that the policy has played into anti-immigration groups’ efforts to misrepresent border data.
NBC’s Julia Ainsley reports that “U.S.-assisted arrests of smugglers in Central America, far from U.S. soil” may have contributed to the June decrease in migrant crossings and arrests.
A youth refugee soccer camp in Abilene, Texas, including some newly arrived Afghans, has started a new business: selling camper-designed soccer balls around the world. Rwanda Children and Zambia Medical Mission are helping to distribute the balls abroad. (Heather Claborn, KACU)
The Austin-based Global Impact Initiative helps Afghans secure employment by providing English as a Second Language translation assistance when preparing for their commercial driver’s license exams. The organization seeks “to address both refugee employment needs and the national truck driver’s shortage through a new commercial driver’s license (CDL) program.” (Kelsey Thompson, KXAN)
The HOFT Institute, a nonprofit in Texas, is providing scholarships, textbooks, computers and free English classes to a group of Ukrainians, as well as one Afghan evacuee, in preparation for future employment. (Blake DeVine, KXAN)
Thanks to the Center for Refugee Services in San Antonio, more than 3,200 Afghan evacuees have resettled, with CRS and the community offering “housing help, job training and guidance on applying for government benefits.” (Zack Briggs, KENS)
The Migrant Welcome Center in El Paso, Texas, is now helping up to 400 migrants per day as the city works more closely with the Border Patrol, reports Hannah Ray Lambert of Fox News. The main goals are to avoid migrants sleeping in the streets, which occurred earlier this month, and to coordinate their next destination within 24 to 48 hours. Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said that 50% of the migrants have sponsors who can pay for travel to their destination, and the rest may end up on chartered buses that El Paso coordinates with other cities. “We got heart. It’s not our normal. This isn’t. But it’s what’s needed to be done for the community,” said D’Agostino.
Churches and refugee agencies in Fort Worth, Texas, continue to fill gaps after Refugee Services of Texas closed. (Marissa Greene, Fort Worth Report)
Individuals and nonprofits are coming together in the Fort Worth, Texas, area to help resettled Afghans feel welcome in their new homes. (Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram) 
Army National Guard veteran Chris Purdy calls for continuing assistance for our Afghan allies, including the passage of Afghan adjustment legislation, as we approach the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Chris Purdy, Austin American-Stateman) 
Resettled Afghan boys in San Antonio are using cricket to build community. (Raquel Torres, San Antonio Report)
In Amarillo, Texas, a new museum exhibit focuses on Afghan culture within the community. (Brianna Maestas, Amarillo Globe-News)
We escaped from Afghanistan. We landed in Houston. Where are we now? (Claudia Kolker, The Washington Post)
Follow the stories of Afghan evacuees who resettled in Texas. (Blaire Briody, The Texas Signal Media Foundation)
Community engagement was part of the inspiration for enabling resettled Afghans in Texas to meet with international cricket stars. (Judy Rotich, Sports Illustrated)
English classes at a church through the Ladies Let’s Talk nonprofit is helping resettled Afghan women empower themselves. (Bridget Grumet, Austin American-Statesman)

Utah

Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) visited Cache County’s refugee and immigrant center this week to voice his support for resettlement in the Beehive State. (Manuel Giron, Utah Public Radio)
Salt Lake City, Utah, received its first Afghan SIV recipient this week. (Kyle Dunphey, Deseret News)
A group of high school students in Salt Lake City is preparing to welcome Afghan refugees with music. (Matt Rascon, KSL-TV)
Catholic Community Services of Utah released an Amazon Wish List, asking Utahns to help welcome Afghan evacuees to the state. (Lauren Steinbrecher, FOX 13, Salt Lake City)
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) “announced the creation of the Afghan Community Fund, aimed at supporting Afghan refugees in critical areas such as legal support, health care, education, and special needs for women and children.” (Vivian Chow, ABC4)
Adam Miles, the founder of Refugee Soccer in Utah, is “now looking to start a local chapter for Afghan refugees to continue to have that sense of community through soccer.” (Eliana Sheriff, FOX 13)
With the help of the Utah Refugee Services Office, the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Community Services, “just over 900 Afghan refugees have moved to Utah – the largest refugee resettlement in state history.” (Kim Bojórquez, Associated Press)
The Ken Garff Ford and Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat dealerships recently donated $10,000 to Catholic Community Services to help an Afghan family of five furnish their new apartment in Salt Lake City. (Samantha Herrera, KSL NewsRadio)
Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City, which has helped resettle Afghan evacuees in the past year, is planning to assist 300 newly arriving Ukrainians via the Uniting for Ukraine program. CCS is now asking the community to help via donations and sponsors. (Linda Petersen, Intermountain Catholic)
Massachusetts-based nonprofit WelcomeNST has resettled an estimated 500 Afghans and Ukrainians across 90 neighborhoods via private sponsorship. Six are in Utah, the most of any state. (Kyle Dunphey, Deseret News)
KSL continues to feature thestories of Afghan evacuees — and Utahns’ welcome — on its “Stranger Becomes Neighbor” podcast. The two most recent episodes feature a female former elite Afghan soldier and the connections determined volunteers have made with new arrivals. (Andrea Smardon, KSL)
State Department data show that Utah has welcomed more than 8,500 refugees since 2012, ranking it No. 11 per capita among the (Sydnee Gonzalez, KSL.com)
Volunteer Anna Neumann of Roy, Utah, shares her family’s mentorship of a newly arrived Afghan family and urges action on theAfghan Adjustment Act. (Standard-Examiner)
Read how Utahns are helping former-refugee schoolchildren belong (Holly Richardson, writing in the Deseret News)
KSL has the first of a series on “the experiences of Afghan refugees in Utah and the people who try to help them” (Andrea Smardon, KSL.com)
In Provo, Utah, Brigham Young University students had the chance to learn from author Homeira Qaderi who shared her story of escaping Afghanistan with her young son. (Addison Graham, Deseret News)

Vermont

In a variety of ways, local schools in Brattleboro, Vermont, are working to make newly arriving Afghan students feel welcome and get oriented. (Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer and Vermont News & Media)
The first Afghan refugee family recently resettled in Bennington County, Vermont. Now, the Ethiopian Community Development Council’s Multicultural Community Center, in collaboration with Bennington County Open Arms and other volunteers, are working to help secure housing for the 100 additional families expected to arrive by the end of February. (Jim Therrien, Bennington Banner)
The School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, ceased its full-time, on-location program in 2018. Now the campus is home to language and cultural orientation for Afghan evacuees, run by about 20 volunteers. (Howard Weiss-Tisman, Vermont Public Radio)
Nonprofit Feeding Chittenden is helping Afghan evacuees in Vermont adapt, starting with groceries delivered by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. (Jack Thurston, NECN)
A newly formed nonprofit in Burlington called The Vermont Afghan Alliance aims to “bridge the gap between the Afghan population and state and local service providers” and “serve as a designated community space for Afghans to come together during traditional holidays, gatherings and religious services.” (Cam Smith, WCAX)
In collaboration with a new food supplier, a group of Vermont-based organizations is helping Afghan refugees in the Brattleboro area gain access to halal chicken, allowing them “to eat comfortably in alignment with their religion.” (Caitlin Howard, The Keene Sentinel)
Afghan restaurant Bamyan Kebab House, run by the Hashimi brothers, recently opened in Winooski, Vermont. Said co-owner Awran: It’s “a social space for [Afghan refugees] to get connected, to feel closer to home, as well as to introduce Afghan culture to Vermonters.” (Melissa Pasanen, Seven Days)
The Vermont Agency of Education donated $200,000 to support two national refugee nonprofits, including efforts “to offer targeted professional learning opportunities for teachers serving Afghan students and other multilingual newcomers.” (Bennington Banner)
In Vermont, multiple school districts are hiring multicultural liaisons who are helping refugee students, supporting their teachers and families, and providing other essential services. (Auditi Guha, VTDigger)
Five members of Afghanistan’s Art Lords, an artist’s collective, are creating temporary tape art murals in Brattleboro, Vermont, after the Taliban painted over the group’s 2,000-plus murals in Afghanistan. (Bob Audette, Brattleboro Reformer)
With support from Linda Donigan, a youth services librarian in Bennington, Vermont, libraries across the state have launched Stories Across Borders, where young Afghan children can access books in Dari. (Elissa Borden, WCAX)
Vermont has resettled nearly 300 Afghan refugees since 2021 through support programs facilitated by nonprofits and thesupport of local host families. (Melissa Cooney, WCAX)
In Bennington, Vermont, an Afghan family separated during the 2021 American withdrawal finally has reunited with the help of local organizations. (Tiffany Tan, VTDigger)
In Brattleboro, Vermont Abdul Wahid Rizwanzai helps refugees integrate into a new community. (Gordon Hayward, Brattleboro Reformer)
Advocates in Vermont also are calling for green cards for our Afghan allies, including those resettled in the Green Mountain State. (Elodie Reed, Vermont Public)
In Vermont, Afghan communities reflect on three years since the fall of Kabul. (Vermont Afghan Alliance, VermontBiz)
Having been welcomed to Vermont, many resettled Afghans are sharing their stories to advocate for those still at risk in Afghanistan. (Colin Flanders, Alison Novak and Ken Picard, Seven Days)

Virginia

The International Rescue Committee in Charlottesville, Virginia, is helping Afghans resettle with support and donations from the community. (Isabel Cleary, NBC29)
The Student Veterans Association at Virginia Commonwealth University have started a campaign to gather donations for Afghan refugees. (Joan Tupponce, VCU News)
In Charlottesville, Virginia, Buford Middle School employees are offering mental health support for Afghan students. (Dominga Murray, NBC 29)
More than 300 Airbnb hosts in Virginia have signed up to provide free temporary housing for Afghan refugees. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
As the Catholic Church’s National Migration Week kicks off this week, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, is “focusing on refugee education and empathy,” including a live refugee simulation. (Robert Burton, ABC 7 News)
A group of Afghan students in Fairfax County, Virginia, are “creating guides for teachers and students and also helping to collect donations for families in need,” in an effort to help newly arriving Afghan refugees adjust to life and school in the U.S. (Jess Arnold, WUSA 9)
A VFW post in Falls Church, Virginia, “collected more than 6,000 pounds of donations, including clothing, hygiene products, blankets and baby supplies” for Afghan refugees. (Mark Hand, Patch)
Erika Berg’s visual storytelling workshop — “designed to give refugees, who are forced into their situation and migration, the agency to tell the story of their relationship to the crisis back home” — helps resettled Afghans and other former refugees process what is happening in the homes they had to flee. (Ambar Castillo, Washington City Paper)
Chef Hamidullah Noori, a 2015 Special Immigrant Visa recipient and owner of The Mantu restaurant in Richmond, Virginia, is cooking Afghan meals for new arrivals: “That’s the best thing: to serve your community, to serve your people … and to serve your culture.” (Maya Rodriguez, E.W. Scripps news service)
In support of Operation Allies Welcome, Marine Cpl. Miguel Sanchez has connected with Afghan families and children in Fort Pickett, Virginia, by playing music — “a universal language.” (Cpl. Eric Ramirez, DVIDS)
The Northern Virginia chapter of Lasagna Love, a nonprofit that brings comfort food to those who need it, is making Halal meals for Afghan refugees living in the area. (Valerie Bonk, WTOP)
As part of the school’s Pro Bono program, University of Virginia School of Law students are “helping local Afghan families who hold special immigrant visas to fill out paperwork they hope will reunite them with their loved ones. (Eric Williamson, University of Virginia School of Law)
With the help of fellow Virgina Commonwealth University dentistry students, Nadia Abdul-Ghafoor “has put together over 100 bags of toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash” that will be donated to Afghan refugees temporarily housed at the Fort Lee, Virginia, military base. (Joan Tupponce, VCU News)
At the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, students from the Darden Military Association organized a “clothing collection for Afghan families.” (Madison McNamee, NBC 29)
In Charlottesville, Virginia, the International Rescue Committee is working to find affordable housing for more than 200 Afghans who are resettling in the community. (Brielle Entzminger, C-Ville Weekly)
Virginia resettlement agencies have welcomed 4,000 Afghan refugees to the state this year, with more to come. (James Jarvis, InsideNova)
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is opening a new resettlement office in Alexandria, Virginia, and anticipates resettling about 700 Afghan evacuees. (Fredrick Kunkle, The Washington Post)
To help with Afghan resettlement in Prince William County, the Muslim Association of Virginia continues to work alongside resettlement agencies, “providing meals, basic living necessities, new mattresses and donated furniture.” (Kristen Powers, WJLA)
New Heaven and New Earth Church, along with interfaith organizations and local Afghan restaurants in Springfield, Virginia, “committed to donating $15,000 worth of food” for an Afghan refugee food drive. (Emily Leayman, Patch)
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) is seeking donations for its new refugee resettlement office in Alexandria, Virginia. Since November, staff members have helped 750 people. (Justin Hinton, ABC 7 News)
Arlington Neighbors Welcoming Afghans, a Facebook group spearheaded by military veteran Ryan Elizabeth Alvis in Virginia, has raised about $20,000 for newly resettled Afghans, and is raising more via GoFundMe. (Matt Blitz, ARL Now)
In partnership with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Peace Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia, has helped resettle about 1,000 Afghan refugees in just three months, with support from a largely Afghan staff. (Hiba Ahmad, NPR)
In partnership with Church World Services, Eastern Mennonite University, and the Massanutten Technical Center, some 200 Afghan refugees have gotten an opportunity to take free English classes in Harrisonburg, Virginia. (Colby Johnson, WHSV 3)
Loudoun County, Virginia, will now host the Operation Allies Welcome program site for Afghan refugees. “They just want a chance and I hope we can work together to provide them that chance,” said Robert Fenton with Operation Allies Welcome. (Kolbie Satterfield, WUSA 9)
Launched by U.S. Marine reservist Ryan Alvis, the Arlington Neighbors Welcoming Afghans (ANWA) Facebook group “has become the virtual gathering point for coordinating supplies, volunteers and team leads” for new Afghan arrivals. (Eliza Tebo, Arlington Magazine)
In partnership with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area and other groups, the ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia, has been “offer[ing] spiritual and physical aid to Afghan refugees, through its social services, youth, education and Imam’s departments.” (Samantha Willis, VPM News)
Local organizations have stepped up to help the 200 or so refugees who have resettled in the Harrisonburg, Virginia, area: with housing, needed items, English language instruction and more. (Randi B. Hagi, WMRA)
United States Air Force Senior Airman and Liberty University alum Grace Tinkey contributed to Operation Allies Refuge, which helped Afghan civilians flee during the U.S. military’s departure: “I felt like it was my job to help make the process as easy for them as possible and do anything I could to make them feel more comfortable and safer.” (Ryan Klinker, Liberty University)
The diocesan Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services have welcomed and accommodated more than 1,000 Afghan refugees and other newcomers since October. “It has restructured and almost doubled the size of its staff from 33 to 62, even opening a new office in Woodbridge [Virginia].” (Leslie Miller, Catholic Herald)
Commonwealth Catholic Charities helped Afghan ally Mohammad Hassanzada adjust to his new life in Roanoke, Virginia, where he now owns a rug store “to pay tribute to his roots and share his culture.” (Alexus Davila, 10 News)
“…We [Afghan people] take care of each other and we give [a] hand to the new people that are arriving here in Charlottesville,” said Afghan refugee Rahimullah Nishat who resettled in Charlottesville, Virginia, thanks to the nonprofit International Neighbors and the local Afghan community. (Anne-Parker Coleman, CBS19 News)
Amid the growth of the refugee and immigrant population in Roanoke, Virginia, more than 20 students gathered at Belmont Library to learn “methods for communicating across language and cultural barriers and forming communities.” (Heather Rousseau, The Roanoke Times)
Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia is expanding its English as a Second Language (ESL) program due to an increase of international students, with more than half coming from Afghanistan. The mission of the program is to “prepare these students in the summer for the new school year, so they don’t fall behind their English-speaking peers come fall.” (Sierra Krug, WRIC)
Afghan refugee chef Hamidullah Noori of Central Virginia will be opening his second restaurant, where he plans to continue serving the Afghan community. “It wasn’t easy for us, but it was an opportunity for me to support our families, our people who are in need. Provide job opportunities to them, support them [in] their daily life,” Noori said. (Rolynn Wilson of WIRC)
Eight churches in the Roanoke, Virginia, area are among the organizations that have welcomed resettled Afghans as part of the Commonwealth Catholic Charities Community Sponsorship program, Heather Rousseau of The Roanoke Times reports.
An 8-year-old Afghan girl was able to get open-heart surgery in the U.S. thanks to efforts led by former Green Beret Joe Crane and other groups. (Brian Brehm, The Winchester Star)
In Northen Virginia, Afghan refugees are forming an Afghan-owned sheep farming operation with support from Virginia Cooperative Extension agents. (Marya Barlow, Virginia Tech News)
Azizgul Ahmadi, a resettled Afghan and former Female Tactical Platoon member, uses her experiences to uplift other Afghans now living in Virginia. (Heather Rousseau, The Roanoke Times) 
In Williamsburg, Virginia, a former Afghan interpreter and his family are finding a new community. (Sian Wilkerson, Virginia Gazette News)
After assisting U.S. troops for years, an Afghan man finds hope for his family in Roanoke, Virginia. (Heather Rousseau, The Roanoke Times)
Former members of the Afghan Female Tactical Platoon are finding community and home with thehelp of Blacksburg Refugee Partnership. (Heather Rousseau, The Roanoke Times)
A Welcome Corps group at James Madison University in Virginia will welcome two refugee students in the fall; they’ll be among 33 such students nationwide. (Robin Guess, Voice of America)
A community in Virginia helps a group of refugee brothers reunite and start over. (Theresa Vargas, The Washington Post)
Two Afghan immigrant students in Fairfax County, Virginia, launched a club for newly arriving Afghans that now has expanded to welcome other new arrivals. (Scott Gelman, WTOP News)
In Afghanistan, dignitaries were among tailor Reza Mohammadi’s clients. Now resettled in Alexandria, Virginia, he has made a fresh start in the same trade. (Mike Murillo, WTOP News)
At the College of William & Mary, members of the women’s Afghan tactical platoon shared their experiences of mental toughness and resilience. (Emma Henry, The Virginia Gazette)
With local help in Virginia, Sajia Afzali and her family are rebuilding their lives after escaping the Taliban. (Leah Small, WHRO)

Washington

Up to 300 Afghan refugees are likely to arrive in Spokane, Washington, in the coming months, per Mark Finney, director of World Relief Spokane. (Orion Donovan-Smith, The Spokesman Review)
Since the end of August, more than 50 members of the military from Washington state have been supporting efforts to welcome Afghan nationals arriving at military installations. (Master Sgt. John Hughel via the Defense Visual Information Distribution Network)
A Washington state family started the Afghan Refugee Student Backpack Program, which has now “donated nearly 700 backpacks and hand-written notes and more than $15,000 worth of new school supplies to Afghan refugees from preschool to high school.” (Alex Bruell, Enumclaw Courier-Herald)
The City of Tacoma, Washington, recently sent $25,000 to Lutheran Community Services Northwest, a local organization helping Afghan refugees in the area. (AJ Janavel, FOX 13)
Spokane, Washington, Gonzaga Prep junior Neharika Sharma and a group of teenagers around the world recently founded a nonprofit called Youth Bringing Immigrants Together (YBIT) and are “looking for opportunities to help out Afghan refugees.” (Sophia McFarland, The Spokesman-Review)
In collaboration with Lutheran Community Services’ Unaccompanied Minor Program in Spokane, Washington, local families “are stepping in to fill that void and help [Afghans] resettle into their new lives.” (Esther Bower, KXLY Broadcast Group)
Retired lieutenant colonel Matthew Petro, an Afghanistan War veteran, is now a teacher at Spokane’s Linwood Elementary School, where his students include two Afghan refugees. (Jim Allen, The Spokane Spokesman-Review)
As a former attorney in Afghanistan and now a cross cultural navigator with Refugee Connections Spokane in Washington, advocate Atia Iqbal “takes new [Afghan] arrivals to appointments, translates their mail and helps them apply for food stamps or rental assistance.” (Dhivya Sridar, The Spokesman-Review)
In Everett, Washington, just up the road from Tacoma, Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest hosted a virtual coffee meeting this week to discuss its work resettling Afghans in the area and suggest ways to create a welcoming community. (Larry Vogel, My Edmonds News)
In collaboration with other local organizations, the Port of Seattle has helped welcome an estimated 3,000 Afghan refugees to the state, with an additional 500 slated to arrive in the next week or so. (Cody Miller, KING 5 Seattle)
As part of Airbnb’s Open Homes project, Wendy and Jeff Ovall of Vancouver, Washington, sponsored the Azizpour family with support from their church, Columbia Presbyterian. (Scott Hewitt, The Columbian)
Local schools in the Seattle area are “hiring or expanding the work of Pashto and Dari interpreters, adding after-school and other extended-learning programs for refugees, buddying new Afghan students with ones who have lived here for a while,” and more. (Nina Shapiro, Seattle Times)
A support committee of “[c]hurch members, former World Relief support [workers], fellow Afghans and antsy high-schoolers” gathered at Spokane, Washington’s airport last week to welcome a newly arriving Afghan family. (Amber D. Dodd, The Spokesman-Review)
Medical students at the University of Washington have partnered with Refugee Connections Spokane to help Afghan refugees navigate medical records and receive services in both Dari and English. (Treva Lind, The Spokesman-Review)
The Refugee Women’s Alliance helped Afghan refugee Zahra Karini resettle in Washington state, where she now volunteers for the nonprofit Hazara Community of Washington “to help other Afghan women like her work through personal struggles with mental health and sometimes domestic abuse.” (Anushuya Thapa and Indunil Usgoda Arachchi, InvestigateWest)
Ghazal Meratnia, a pharmacy student at Washington State University, has served as the state’s certified medical interpreter for the past decade. Originally from Iran, Meratnia is now helping hundreds of Afghan evacuees navigate medical checkups and other healthcare concerns. (Connie Young, WSU Insider)
Ahmad Hilal Abid, an Afghan-born man who immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Seattle in 2018, first used his garage to help other immigrants with English, their classwork and cultural learning — and with building community. Now he helps almost 30 students ages 7-16 — in a larger space. (Jayce Carral, The Seattle Times)
Former Afghan army officer Setara Wafa, who resettled in Seattle after fleeing Afghanistan in August 2021, is now helping new arrivals get their bearings. (Julie Calhoun, KING5)
Faith and nonprofit groups in Wisconsin are holding listening sessions to brainstorm on ways to best serve refugees in their communities. (Isak Dinesen, WAOW 9 News)
For Human Rights First, Fatima Safi describes her “heartening experience” of witnessing collaboration at a USCIS event to support hundreds of resettled Afghans.

West Virginia

“These Afghani refugees are fleeing violence and we are a great welcoming people that need to be accepting of everybody, this state was made up of immigrants, I don’t see what the problem is here,” said state Delegate Kayla Young (D) in response to West Virginia’s decision not to accept Afghan evacuees. (Larisa Casillas, 13 News)
Why Can’t West Virginia Be Home For Afghan Refugees? (Hoppy Kercheval, MetroNews)
West Virginia University Libraries recently hosted a discussion on justice for Afghan women and refugee resettlement to garner community support. Renee Corbett, an outreach worker for the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services with Catholic Charities WV, pointed to her organization and the Sponsor Circle Program as ways to help. (Katelyn Aluise, The Daily Athenaeum)
Five West Virginia families are providing community for five former students of the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh who feel grateful to have made it to the U.S. “At this time in Afghanistan, all opportunities for women are closed,” said one of the students, Madina Amanzai. “… Coming to the United States is the best way to improve our chances for our future.” (WVU Medicine)

Wisconsin

Along with a network of people from the local sewing community, women in Madison, Wisconsin, raised $8,000 in less than a week and donated a ‘mountain’ of fabric for Afghan refugees to sew traditional clothes. (Emily Hamer, Wisconsin State Journal)
The Appleton, Wisconsin, City Council passed a resolution to expedite aid for Afghan refugees. (Jason Zimmerman, WBAY-TV)
In Wisconsin, Habitat for Humanity La Crosse Area is hosting a fundraiser next Saturday to aid Afghan allies and their families who remain in Afghanistan. (WIProud.com)
Wisconsin veteran Zac Lois took a leave of absence from his job as a history teacher to join Task Force Pineapple, a group of veterans who are helping rescue Afghan allies. (Megan Carpenter, Spectrum News 1)
The 42-member University of Wisconsin-Stout Veterans Club has launched a donation drive to help Afghan refugees temporarily resettled at Fort McCoy military base. (Jimmie Kaska, WEAU)
UW-La Crosse staff and faculty members used their woodworking skills to create about 200 toy houses for Afghan children housed at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. (La Crosse Tribune)
At Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, instructors like Afghan refugee and teacher Painda Mohammad Mashal “are teaching refugees of all ages about the English language and American culture.” (CBS 58)
Dane County, Wisconsin, is doing its “small part” by including $50,000 in its Fiscal Year 2022 budget to support organizations helping Afghan families resettle in the community. (Emily Hamer, Wisconsin State Journal).
A retired chief warrant officer with the South Dakota Army National Guard and his son, who serves with the Iowa National Guard, are joining forces to assist evacuees at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. (Randy Dockendorf, Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan)
ICYMI: Thanks to Jonathan Solari, CEO of the Madison Ballet, Afghan refugees housed at Fort McCoy were given a special performance of “The Nutcracker” on the military base earlier this month. (Lucas Robinson, Wisconsin State Journal)
Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg joined a group at Central Wisconsin Airport to extend a warm welcome to the area’s first Afghan refugees, last week. (Isak Dinesen, WAOW TV-9)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Waukesha, Wisconsin, spent all of December sharing the Christmas spirit by providing meals to newly arriving Afghan refugees. (Rose Schmidt, CBS 58)
In his job with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, Afghan immigrant Sayed Wardak is helping newly arrived Afghans get settled in Wisconsin. (Sam Lucero, Catholic News Service)
Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee, a multi-ethnic evangelical congregation, is welcoming Afghan refugees and other new neighbors. “Yes, have your political ideas,” says Dan Ryan, senior director of mission at the church. “But don’t lose sight of the people involved.” (Bob Smietana, Religion News Service)
“We’ve come to believe that we are one world and everybody is our neighbor, so we need to reach out and welcome our neighbors wherever they’re from and whoever they might be,” said Ginny Close, leader of a new interfaith group in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, hoping to help resettle Afghan families in the area. (Eric Lindquist, The Leader-Telegram)
Team Rubicon is organizing a million donated items in Milwaukee, from sofas to shoes, that await Afghan evacuees being resettled in Wisconsin. (Bret Lemoine, Fox 6)
“It’s just incredible, everything that they’ve gone through, and we’re just so happy to be able to be involved and welcoming them here in Wausau,” said Gwen Paul of the volunteer-run nonprofit New Beginnings for Refugees in Wisconsin. (Diane Bezucha, Wisconsin Public Radio)
In partnership with World Relief Fox Valley’s Good Neighbor Teams, 14 members of Christ the King Lutheran Church have helped refugees in Wisconsin “with things like furnishing homes, driving to appointments, setting up internet, communicating with neighbors and adjusting to life in an unfamiliar place.” (Kelli Arseneau, Appleton Post-Crescent)
Marquette University Law students and faculty travelled to the Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, military base over winter break to provide pro bono legal services, including assistance with asylum applications, to Afghan refugees. (Bailey Striepling, Marquette Wire)
For months, Debra Manske of South Milwaukee and her friends sewed teddy bears for Afghan children temporarily living at Ft. McCoy military base in Wisconsin. Now that many of the families are being resettled in permanent homes, she’s looking for other places to donate them. (Natalie Shepherd, CBS 58)
“Everything was regular, I woke up to go to the hospital to work for my patients and suddenly I heard [from] the TV that the government has collapsed,” said Mohammaed Azimy, a former Kabul dentist. He is now learning English at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a first step toward re-establishing his career. (Noelle Friel, NBC 26)
With help from about a dozen church volunteers, Christ the King Lutheran Church and local businesses recently donated repurposed bikes for Afghan refugees in need in Wisconsin. (Griselda Perez, Spectrum News 1)
The Ethiopian Community Development Council in Central Wisconsin helped 53 Afghans resettle over the winter. Now, after a pause, the agency is poised to welcome up to 40 more Afghans, as well as other refugees. (Renee Hickman, Wausau Daily Herald)
In partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Eastbrook Church is financially supporting eight Afghan women in UWM’s Intensive English Program. “It’s a great example of a public university working with private, even religious organizations in the community for a common goal — to support people who need it,” said English Language Academy director Brooke Haley. “I think it’s kind of a beautiful model.” (Emily Files, WUWM)
With the help of their son, daughter-in-law, and parish, longtime Catholic Charities volunteers Ellen and Peter helped buy 20 new washers and dryers for Afghan families in need in Northeast Wisconsin. (Michele McCormack, WFRV)
Two local organic farms in Wisconsin are partnering with New Beginnings for Refugees to support 10 Afghan families for about 5 months with “access to fresh, locally grown organic produce.” (Brittany Dobbins, WSAW)
Shekeba Samadzada, a hospital chef at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin, won a national award for her vegetable korma recipe, which aims to give pediatric Afghan refugees “a taste of home.” (Trevor Hook, Wisconsin Public Radio)
Hamza Jebran and 32 other Afghan refugees were given the opportunity to work and rebuild their lives with the engineering and manufacturing company Husco in Waukesha, Wisconsin, which “offers everything from translators to transportation support and multi-faith meditation spaces.” (Taylor Lumpkin, TMJ4)
Over 70 Afghans have resettled in Madison, Wisconsin, with support from Dane County’s only refugee resettlement agency, Jewish Social Services, which hired new staff, volunteers, and several other local organizations to help. (Erin Sullivan, WMTV)
PBS Wisconsin Education is collaborating with local resettlement agencies and organizations to provide newly arrived refugee students backpacks full of “comfort item[s] such as a plush toy or handmade quilt.” (Tara Lovdahl, PBS Wisconsin)
Nonprofit World Relief is working with community partners to begin resettling refugees in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Ellie Jo Pomerleau, WEAU 13 News)
PBS Wisconsin Education is offering a “warm” welcometo refugee children with handmade quilts. (Tara Lovdahl, PBS Wisconsin)
Between classes at Milwaukee Area Technical College and his job at a local warehouse, Afghan born Ahmad Mokhtar Rezaei has now published a book. (Kelly Milan, Spectrum News1)
The Episcopal Migration Ministries has a new affiliate in Wisconsin preparing to welcome a refugee family for the first time. (David Paulsen, Episcopal News Service)
In Wisconsin, driving lessons from theHanan Refugees Relief Group are helping Afghan women achieve independence. (Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an Afghan refugee works to help fight hunger. (Megan Marshall, Spectrum News 1)
Marquette University professor Louise Cainkar and the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition created “Restorative Sewing Circles,” through which Afghan women are building community. (Melissa Barclay, Marquette Today)
In Wisconsin, The History Museum in Appleton shares the stories of Afghans who resettled in the area. (Josh Cavender, Fox 11 News)

Wyoming

Wyoming is the only state that has no refugee resettlement program. Jim Shumard, the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Casper, wants to change that. (Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post)

National/Other

Vietnamese Americans across the country, many reminded of their own journey to the U.S., are organizing to help Afghans resettle. (Alicia A. Caldwell, Wall Street Journal)
Scotland’s regional councils have drawn up plans to welcome hundreds of Afghan refugees. (Laura Paterson, PA Scotland)
More than 17,000 new items have been donated for Afghan families in less than a week by businesses and individuals to help them settle in the United Kingdom. (Helen Pidd, The Guardian)
Albania, one of Europe’s poorest nations, has committed to taking in up to 4,000 Afghan refugees and is temporarily housing several hundred in resorts. (Andrew Higgins, The New York Times)
More than 79 members of the Afghan women’s soccer team and their families have arrived in Pakistan with help from Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan’s national women’s soccer team. (Mychael Schnell, The Hill)
More than 30 major companies — including Amazon, Facebook, Pfizer and UPS — will join the Tent Coalition for Afghan Refugees, founded by Chobani’s Hamdi Ulukaya, to integrate, train and hire Afghan refugees as they rebuild their lives in the U.S. (Erin Doherty, Axios)
Airbnb announced Thursday that it hopes to double the amount of Afghan evacuees offered temporary housing, from 20,000 to 40,000. (Rachel Tillman, Spectrum News)
The Independence Fund and Loyal Source launched the Independence Fund Help Line, a free call center service to support Afghan refugees, U.S. veterans, and family members navigate life post-Afghanistan withdrawal. (ABC 7 DC)
Goat Salon in Calgary, Canada, coordinated with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to provide free haircuts for Afghan refugees. (Colleen Underwood, CBC News)
A group of cyclists raised the equivalent of around $81,000 for grassroots refuge projects after spending nearly a month biking through England to spell out ‘refugees welcome’ via GPS map. (Kieran Graves, Sussex Live)
Dr. Saleema Rehman, a gynecologist serving displaced Afghan women in Pakistan (and the first female refugee doctor from Afghanistan’s Turkmen ethnic group), “won UNHCR’s regional Nansen Refugee Award, an annual prize given to individuals doing outstanding work for displaced people.” To support recently displaced Afghans in Pakistan, she’ll be “delivering babies and saving mothers.” (Ruchi Kumar, NPR)
Adamstown Uniting Church in Australia has been collecting gift cards for major stores in an effort to help Northern Settlement Services resettle newly arriving Afghans. (Helen Gregory, Newcastle Herald)
The Schultz Family Foundation, Stand Together Foundation and The Starbucks Foundation announced the Mobilizing America for Refugees Fund Monday, which will provide more than $1 million to community-based organizations helping with Afghan resettlement efforts. (Schultz Family Foundation)
An informal network of former government and military officials “is working around the clock to fulfill a pledge to save Afghans who put their lives on the line for America.” (Roger Cohen, The New York Times)
Mark Hill, a veteran from North Yorkshire, England, has created a digital “Buddy Box” — a “free online resource [which] uses text, pictures and audio to translate Afghan languages Dari and Pashto into English,” for Afghan refugee children, now being used in more than 50 schools across the UK and Europe. (BBC News)
Afghan refugees resettling in Adelaide, South Australia, have found a “thriving Afghan community and a cricket club that has welcomed them with open arms.” (Abdullah Alikhil, Peter Theodosiou and Peta Doherty, SBS Pashto)
60 organizations across 32 states, including The Schultz Family Foundation, Welcome.us, and Hello Neighbor, have awarded a “total of $1.3 million to engage 10,000+ volunteers” with Afghan resettlement. (InsideNova)
“We’re dealing with navigating a war zone in which we do not have a presence. …in the meantime, we’re going to continue to work to see these arrivals, increase their pace, and have more people settled in our communities as soon as possible,” Canada’s Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview this week. (Genevieve Beauchemin and Nicole Bogart, CTV News)
Two Afghan woman based in Albania have opened Ghezaye Afghani (“which means Afghan cuisines in Dari, one of the Afghan languages”) to offer a piece of home to an estimated 1,200 Afghan refugees who have resettled in Shengjin city. (Ruchi Kumar, Al Jazeera)
Upwardly Global is supporting Afghan evacuees access the labor market and identify careers that match their skills. (Loren Steffy, Rational Middle)
Australians have donated more than a million dollars to support the Red Cross in Afghanistan, and the Australian Red Cross “has also called on the government to boost its intake of refugees from Afghanistan by 20,000.” (7 News Australia)
Walmart’s Health and Wellness team provided medical items to thousands of refugees living on base as part of Operation Allies Welcome. (Walmart)
Canada’s colleges and universities are stepping up to provide scholarships and other initiatives for Afghan refugee students in need. (Fabian Dawson, New Canadian Media)
Former U.S. diplomat Deborah Alexander and other volunteers have been working nonstop to assist Afghans with asylum and visa applications. (Ruchi Kumar, NPR)
The new “Welcome Sesame,” from the Sesame Workshop, offers educational materials to Afghan and Ukrainian refugee families, “available in Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian, Spanish, and English, and [covering] subjects ranging from coping with the trauma of resettlement to fostering a sense of belonging.” (Michael Grothaus, Fast Company)
Dr. Kevin Pottie, a professor at Western University in Ontario, co-authored a curriculum framework to help health care professionals meet the needs of refugees and other migrants. (CBC News)
The State Department team that worked with nine resettlement agencies to resettle almost 72,000 Afghans in five months is a finalist for this year’s Service to American Medals program. (Tom Temin, Federal News Network)
Brazilian Baptists have recently welcomed over 100 evacuees from Afghanistan to Vila Minhya Pátria, “where they receive care, learn skills to prepare them for long-term residence in Brazil, and see the love of Christ in action.” (Ken Camp, Baptist Standard)
Germany announced Monday that it is launching a new program to help to bring about 1,000 at-risk Afghan citizens, including journalists, scientists, political activists, judges, educators and others, to the country each month. (Associated Press)
Without access to school in Afghanistan, teenage sisters Bahara and Najma are teaching other girls circus skills they previously learned in class. (EFE)
Read Shams Erfan’s odyssey in his own words — including the help he received from a group of Canadians and Australians. (BBC) 
Organizations in Boston; Boise, Idaho; and Philadelphia are helping keep refugees healthy through different assistance programs. (The Borgen Project) 
Asif Rahimi is among theAfghans a group of volunteers in Whistler, Canada, has helped resettle. Now the group will welcome Rahimi’s wife, Arezo — and their 10-year-old daughter whom Asif has never met in person. (Roisin Cullen, Pique Newsmagazine)
Athletes share their support for the Refugee Olympic Team ahead of the Paris Summer Olympics in this new video from the Olympic Refugee Foundation. The team will include Manizha Talash of Afghanistan, competing in the inaugural Olympic breakdancing competition, per UN News.
Will Selber shares his experiences working to help Afghan allies as he still recovers from the mental toll of combat. (The Bulwark)
Afghanistan’s cricket team is now in the World Cup after experiencing a harrowing journey. (Jafar Haand and Matiullah Abid Noor, Voice of America)
Afghan evacuees in the U.K. share their stories — including hopes of being able to return to a better Afghanistan one day. (Nicky Harley and Tim Stickings, The National News)
From Kabul to keel laying: Afghan immigrants find new careers at US shipyards (Valerie Insinna, Breaking Defense)
When the US left Kabul, these Americans tried to help Afghans left behind. It still haunts them (Rebecca Santana and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press)
A young Afghan woman finds her footing in Australia after escaping her home country. (Alicia Vrajlal, Missing Perspectives)
At the United Nations General Assembly, international education organizations discussed efforts to offer higher education opportunities for Afghan refugees. (Gulf Times)
In Canada, a group at Wilfrid Laurier University helped provide full scholarships to 43 Afghans and other newcomers. (Terry Pender, Waterloo Region Record)