Support a Rohingya Family's New Beginning

Dear friends, colleagues, and generous souls.

This fundraiser is for a recently resettled Rohingya family living in Houston Texas. After a lengthy asylum process, the family has finally been relocated from the refugee camps of Bangladesh!

The transition from life in the refugee camp, where they have spent the last several decades, to life in the US is exciting but comes with new challenges. Our goal is to raise a few months worth of rent to assist the family as they search for jobs and continue to acclimate. Rent for their apartment (housing all 6 of them, including a small toddler) is currently $1300/month and we urgently need $800 to cover this month's rent. We also need to cover GFM's fees, so our target is to raise $5,000 total. This fundraiser is a collaborative effort between myself (Marshall Azad) and Caroline Duble.

I first met this family in 2017. That year nearly one million Rohingya people fled persecution in Myanmar and sought refuge in Bangladesh. Unlike the recent arrivals, this particular family had come decades earlier and was living in a long-term refugee settlement. As a humanitarian worker I relied on guidance from this family to safely navigate the camps and communicate with the refugees who had recently arrived. I was deeply moved by the active role they played in supporting their fellow community members. Despite their own vulnerability, I saw them working tirelessly to help connect some of the most desperate refugee families to aid and resources.

After a few weeks of working with the family, they invited me to see their home in the camp. Seeing the long-term refugee settlement was shocking. They lived in a crowded corrugated tin shanty, exposed to the elements, with open sewers, and no running water. After dodging feral dogs and winding our way through narrow allies, we ducked down to fit into the small doorway of their home. I stepped in to a hot metal room and sat on the floor with the family. They offered me a drink and told me details of their lives in the camp; the violence that caused them to flee and the experience of having children and raising a family in the camp. It was a place that most of us could not imagine spending one night let alone several decades.

Despite the unfathomable challenges that this family has faced, I have seen them respond with resilience and kindness. I am beyond happy that they have been resettled and I would like to request that we pool our resources to help them as they begin their new life here in the United States. For the young people in the family this is a particularly important moment to begin living life beyond the confines of the refugee camp.

We sincerely thank you for your contributions. Every little bit counts.

Marshall & Caroline

Please note that for the family’s privacy we are not sharing any personal details. If you have questions or would like to learn more about the Rohingya refugee crisis please feel free to email us directly.