I am raising funds for a woman who was on my team when I lived and worked overseas. She was only recently admitted as a refugee, but only with her husband and her two teenage boys. They were assigned a caseworker from a refugee agency which has taken them under its wing but after 3 months they were left to their own devices. They live in Fort Worth in TX where mom and dad and their two teenagers were given an apartment that costs them 1000 per month. On January 17 their two young adult children joined them and were given their own apartment in the same city which costs 800 a month. Of the 6 of them only one has been able to find a (low paying) job at American Airlines at the Fort Worth/Dallas airport. They are all trying hard to find jobs but are getting rejection after rejection. Some speak fairly good English but others not so much. recently they received this message:

"Due to the Federal freeze put in place on january 24 TXOR (TX office for Refugees) is unable to access their system to make deposits to your account. This means all payments are on hold and we do not know when payments can be released. I will keep you updated as soon as I known something. have a good day."

How they are supposed to 'have a good day,' is a mystery to me. They are stressed out to the gills.

I know everyone is asking for money these days, I am looking for only $2,000 to help them through the next two months so they can pay their rent. They are not allowed to live all 6 in a 2 BR apartment and even if they could, they would have to pay first and last month rent to break the lease of the smaller apartment. Hopefully in 2 months more of them will be earning and they can stand on their own feet.

Thank you for supporting Shakila and her family.