Kehilat Sukkat Shalom is now a proud Catalyst/Community Co-Sponsor helping welcome a refugee family from The Democratic Republic of Congo in conjunction with Columbus-based US Together and HIAS (formerly Hebrew Immigration Aid Society).
The family of seven (two parents and five children ages 15-4) arrived the third week of July. We’ve learned so much about them in few weeks we’ve gotten to know them, and so much more is still a mystery. We know they spent many years in refugee camp in Uganda before making the journey to the U.S. We’ve learned that Swahili can be written in many different alphabets and has more than one dialect. And we are reminded again and again and again of how many hurdles (and how much paperwork) it takes to establish oneself a new place – to find housing, enroll for benefits and education, gain cultural orientation, find employment, and learn how use new currency.
In the meantime, we’re working to raise $10,000 to help support their resettlement. (This is an increase of our original goal of $5,000 which we surpassed with the generosity of SO many of you after only a week. The increase reflects the rising costs of everything at the moment, the size of the family, and unexpected but highly important costs like providing early access to ESL instruction and the use of an in-person translator to key experiences like visiting the bank for the first time.)
THANK YOU FOR HELPING US PERFORM THE MITZVAH OF WELCOMING THE STRANGER!
Please give as generously as you are able by sending a check, direct bank payment, or PayPal contribution to KSS TODAY! (Please mark: Refugee Settlement Support)