First, a brief update on the two families St. John’s has helped.
Our first family, the Ibrat family with five children ranging in age from 5 to 16 has now lost their Medicaid coverage because they have not yet received green cards, even though they have applied for them. They are still legally present in this country. The father, Enamullah makes his living by making deliveries for Amazon. Tajmahal, the mother, is looking for work. One bright spot, thanks to the Interfaith Refugee Ministry: a member of the Church of the Latter Day Saints is donating a van to the Ibrat family. They heard about the family’s needs through the Interfaith Refugee Ministry. (The original van donated by a St. John’s parishioner now has 260,000 miles on it and can now be used by Tajmahal as she looks for work.)
Our second family, also with five children is doing well. Fariha is working at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center as a surgical assistant. Shafi is now certified as a nurse assistant and is hoping to progress in his medical career and his English language proficiency improves. The children are doing well; the oldest, Farhat, now attends UMBC.
St. John’s Afghan Family Ministry is now a part of the Interfaith Refugee Ministry. This ministry was founded at Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia and now includes 16 different faith communities, including St. John the Evangelist.
Ann Barnes of Christ Church is one of the founding members and wrote this on August 15 of this year:
For most of us reading this email, today is an ordinary, late summer Saturday.
But for the dozens of Afghans served by the Interfaith Refugee Ministry, and Afghans everywhere, today is the five year anniversary of, as one Afghan man has told me, the darkest day of their lives – the day that their entire known world ceased to exist, the day they literally had to flee for their lives, the day that led to their separation from their families, their homes, their livelihoods, their schools, their culture, their language, and nearly everyone they love and who loved them. The continuing weight of this is impossible for nearly any of us who help them to be able to really grasp. And then we pile onto all this our current federal government’s broken promises and active betrayal of our Afghan allies – which, believe me, they feel.
So, what can we do in the face of these enormities?
As always, we do what we can – which for us often seems so little, but which for the refugees we serve always represents so much – with care and respect and welcome, genuine welcome.
Here are a few ideas:
- Contact the Afghan families you know today. Specifically tell them you are thinking of them on this five year anniversary. Let them know of your care and respect and concern.
- Patronize an Afghan business – a restaurant, a takeout place, a halal market. Say “salam alikum” – peace be with you – to the people who serve you.
- Can you give a fall semester home to a Howard County Community College student – an Afghan woman in her mid-20’s hoping to become a nurse, alone here in the United States, a lovely, hardworking, quiet, sincere young adult who needs a temporary place to live (for free – she is not allowed to work in the U.S.) within a bus ride or walk to HCC. If you can, contact Becky Ramsing at bramsing@verizon.net .
- Do you speak Spanish well enough to help the volunteers at our local Immigration Rights Collective work with the Spanish-speaking immigrants they serve? If so, contact Jeff Jarina at jolou02@proton.me . Please identify yourself as someone connected to the Interfaith Refugee Ministry.
- Can you help a 20 year old, willing to do anything Afghan woman find a fulltime job, and her two younger brothers find part-time jobs, in Glen Burnie? Their family has just moved to Maryland. All three worked in Georgia and are very anxious to begin working here asap. If so, contact Ann Barnes at annbarnes001@comcast.net
- Are you willing to provide rides for an Afghan mother and her autistic son to his medical appointments? They live in Columbia. To talk over what this would involve, please contact Pat DeLorenzo at patrice.delorenzo@gmail.com
- The next time you go shopping, can you pick up a few food, personal or household staple items for our families who no longer have food stamps because they don’t yet have green cards? See the list attached. If you do, contact Ann Barnes at annbarnes001@comcast.net
- Can you help set up wiped, used laptops with the families about to receive them? If so, contact Ann Barnes at annbarnes001@comcast.net