Help a Refugee Family in Urgent Need

Hi, everyone. If you know me, you know I don’t reach out like this often. In fact, I’ve organized only one other GoFundMe ever, to help a friend through cancer treatment. If you don’t know me, then you just need to know that I’m fundraising to help a refugee family who need and deserve help. I’ve grown to call them friends. The impish little face above floats into my mind throughout the day, and I think about how hard his parents are working to keep him and his brother and sister safe and happy.

Through the recipient of this fundraiser, the nonprofit Blacksburg Refugee Partnership , we can:

 

1) Cover the family’s plane fare to get them to an inexpensive location. In the large city where they landed, rents are sky-high and funding is scarce.

 

2) Help cover the basics of shelter, food, and medical care for the next six months while the parents wait for their work permits to come through. 

 

After that? They’ve got this. The man and woman are both smart, professionally skilled, and fluent in English. They have incredible can-do attitudes and a great sense of humor. And the kids are excited about going to school and learning English. I know they will thrive here in the U.S. once the parents are authorized to work.

 

Any funds raised beyond the family’s needs will go to BRP’s work to help other refugees in southwest Virginia. BRP is an all-volunteer organization with no overhead, so 100% of your tax-deductible donation will support this family and other refugees.

Why Private Funding? Won’t the Government Help Them?

With their lives at risk, the family got to safety the fastest way they could: with one-year “humanitarian parole” visas. Humanitarian parole normally requires a sponsor in the U.S., but there was no time to find one. Getting the family out was so urgent that a U.S. ambassador requested their visas himself. I have seen the ambassador’s signed letter, and it describes in horrific detail the man's detainment and abuse and the ongoing threat to the family’s lives. This threat is a direct result of the man's work safeguarding American lives abroad.

The family are extremely grateful to be here. But after countless phone calls to aid organizations, we’ve discovered that their visa status is, to put it mildly, problematic. Humanitarian parole from their country of origin does not qualify them for any federal or state-level aid, though the man's situation is the same as that of other immigrants whose work for the U.S. put their lives at risk. 

 

So until they are asylees—a status their lawyer says they have an extremely strong, well documented case to achieve—aid organizations cannot use government funds to help this family. They are here legally, but they are on their own.

 

Back home they had a good life with a house, a car, and jobs they loved. Now, as a direct result of protecting American lives in an unstable country, all they have are the suitcases they were able to bring on the plane. Keeping them sheltered and fed and getting the kids much-needed medical care is up to us.

 

I was thrilled when Blacksburg Refugee Partnership, a 501(c)(3) organization that partners with local faith communities and charitable organizations, got involved. They are a wonderful organization that has helped many families like this one. And thanks to their role as recipient, your donation will be tax deductible.