 We ask you to bless this gathering and bless everyone who's attending this gathering and give Tofi and success in the work that MCC and all of the organizations are doing to serve the needies who are coming from a land that's been in dire need of help for the past four decades. I'm in the out of Belanami. First of all, I just wanted to thank Sister Amina who has been in contact with her often in the past few months since the refugee crisis. And she's been such a tremendous help and such a blessing to have in our community. May Allah bless you and give you Tofi and success and all that you do and everyone around her because it's always there. All those people who help out is not a one man show and one woman show any of these programs and projects. So I really appreciate everybody's help because I, one of the thing about refugees is that we forget that we are all refugee. Our grandfather, Adam, was the first refugee, the first man on this planet was a refugee. He was, he came from paradise into the earth to do time. And as a refugee, he came to this earth. So being a refugee is, is nothing new. And Adam was, was searching for, and he was alone on this planet by himself with no help. So and then, because he lost his wife, Hawa, and then they found each other and Jabbar Rahma and mountain of mercy. And so from then it has been part of the tradition of in the journey of the human being that, that we have been becoming refugees from one land to another because the, the earth, all of the earth is a, is, is, is the land of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So wherever you go, it's like, it's like a chessboard that no matter what move you make, you're still in the chessboard. So wherever we go, we can't get out of the, of the land of Allah because it's every, everywhere you go, it belongs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It belongs to God. So people, you know, travel out of it with, with, for a, for a vacation, they go from one land to another. But there are those who actually, they don't have a choice to leave. And if you look at the situation where the people of Afghanistan and you can, you can name many countries that are going through similar tragedies, but Afghanistan is right now is what people are, are, are looking at in the news over 40 years. It's been really, I mean, I grew up in Afghanistan and I grew up doing war most of my life. And one of the, the, the sad thing is that a lot of people in this country, they never have experienced the real story of the people who lived in war. For us, it's kind of like a movie because we've seen a lot of movies of wars and we think it's cool, but it's really traumatizing growing up in, in a place where bullets are coming and you don't know if you're going to live throughout that, the day that you're, that you're going to school or even picking up groceries from the local grocery store, you might get shot and, and die. And so a lot of these people are looking for a place of safety. One of the, every human being is in search of happiness. They just want to be happy. They, like, there's not like all these people, they want fame and they want glory and they want America or they want Europe or they, most people, I mean, we came to this country, we came, we just, we just wanted, we just wanted safety and happiness. And I think every child deserves to have a, you know, a place where they can call home, a place where they can feel safe and feel at home and feel happy. And, and I think that for us, what we are doing, and this is one of the, a lot of people say, oh, you guys are doing such helping the people and we have to praise you. This is what everybody's supposed to do. We're like, this is every human being on this planet, they're supposed to do this. We're supposed to help those who are in need. And this is, now we're living at a time that when you do the basic human action, you're actually praised for it because nobody's doing anything. And, and, and I will be very short because I don't even know how much time they give me, I think five minutes, but I, I might be over my time. But I'll just read some lines from the great poet of Persia, because most of these people who are coming, they're coming from Afghanistan and they, they speak this beautiful language of poetry, of Persian. And in this poem, Saadi who lived 800 years ago, he, he talks about human being as a family. And, and what does it mean to be a human being? This definition is so amazing that it's actually this poem is hanged in the United Nations as well in, in, in New York. So he says that He said humanity, all of the human being on this planet, whether they're from Africa, whether they're from Persia, whether they're European, whether they're white, black, yellow, whatever color they are, whatever race or whatever gender they are, all of human being, he said, they're like one body, imagine all of humanity as one human being, as one body, one human. He said, because if you look at the essence of the human being, they're all from the same essence. We all bleed the same blood. There's no green blood and yellow blood and white blood. Every blood is the same color. We all, it's the same. The spirit of every human being is the same regardless of their color and their gender and their, you know, their, their, their class, right? So he said, we are all from the same essence. And he said, when one part from this whole body is in pain because of the circumstances of life, he said the entire body would suffer from that pain, just like when we have toothache, our entire body suffers when just a tooth hurts. But why is it that our head, our arms, our hands, our stomach, our feet, every part of our body is suffering when we have a toothache? He said, that's how human being supposed to be. When one part of this body, this, this body that we call the human, the human being, the human family is in pain and suffering. He said, all of the body will suffer. The entire body will suffer. And it should suffer. If it doesn't, there's something wrong. He ends this poem by saying, oh you who are free from the pain and suffering of other people, you don't deserve this amazing title of human being. Because this title called the human being, this is a gift that God has given us, that we are the crown of creation. We're the best of creation and we are called the human. People go to school to get a DR in front of their name, to be called doctor, right? Seven, eight, nine, ten years, they study after their high school and that's the university and then go to graduate school and they'll get their masters and get their, you know, get their doctorate degree, right? To have a DR in front of their name or to have a PhD in front of their name. But Saddi is saying, the greatest title that you can carry is called the human being. That is a greatest title. That's above all of these, above the DR, above the PhD to be a human being. And he said, that humanity is when you are in pain and suffering, when somebody else of your human fellow is suffering. Doesn't matter if they're suffering in Africa and people don't have water to drink and you can drink water here and you can waste water in California while knowing that people are dying because they don't have access to clean water. There's something is wrong with us if we do that. Something is wrong. That's what Saddi is saying, that we have lost a portion of our humanity if we don't care about the suffering and the pain of other people. And this is important to keep our humanity. That's why we are helping. That's why we are here to help those people who are in need because the wheel of fortune is turning. We might be on top right now, but one day we might be at the bottom in need, the same hell that these people are getting because we don't know life is like a play and there are curtains. And we don't know what is the next curtain on display. Is it a tragedy? Is it a happy scene? Is it a war scene? We don't know. This is the nature of life. So let's help these people whatever we can. And I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart because I, MCC helped the one house that I was a witness from beginning to the end on how they did it from the beauty, the echsan, just the way everything was done. The people that brought this stuff to the house, each individual, one was more beautiful than the other in their character. That these people who were receiving this gift, they were just in awe of the people who brought this gift to them. They brought them the mattress and they brought them the beds and they brought them even towels for the bathroom. And all these essential needs that they need, but it wasn't just a gift. I'm telling you, some of these people like this family that some of these families that were helped, they were like kings back home. They lived like kings. They had servants. They had like 10 bedroom homes. But then they packed and they didn't even pack. They just left without anything. And they have stuff there, but they can't do anything with it. It's kind of like, you know, one of them said, he said, I'm a millionaire beggar now. And he started laughing. He says, I'm a millionaire beggar. I have millions of dollars worth of stuff in Afghanistan. And I'm begging here because I can't access to it. I don't have access to it. I can't do anything with it. And they even took my backpack at the airport. I came with a plastic bag. They said, whatever you can fit in this plastic bag, go leave. So there are those people that are really in need. Most of them, but again, I'm always in touch with sister Amina because we also don't want to be taken advantage of because there's always, you know, there's the, and every time and every society and every community, you know, like Clint Eastwood said, there's a good and there's a bad and there's ugly. So there's no society that's free from that. So we have to be careful in one of the things that I really appreciate about MCC that they're really vigilant about really helping people to the degree that they need help until they stand on their feet and let them, let them start their life and move forward. But thank you very much. God bless you for everyone who is helping on these projects. And may God give you a thousand times of what you have done for these people. I mean, it was death, right? Thank you so much for these wonderful words. I think now we just want to go over a little bit of the history of the partnership with MCC and service, San Ramoni Valley Islamic Center. When the recent Afghan crisis started, the two organizations decided to partner together. And I'll give a brief kind of overview of MCC. And then Sister Nadia will talk about service. And I think this contribution to this partnership is mainly the food program. Prior to COVID, we started off in a tiny little closet. And now Mashallah, our pantry has grown. It started with COVID. We started serving 16 families and now Mashallah, we are up to over 250 families that we're serving every two weeks. We are distributing produce, staple items and diapers to families in need. And this is now including the Afghan refugees that are coming in. Thank you, Sister Amina. Assalamu Alaikum. So SRVIC started our refugee support program in 2005, but with Sister Chloe and Sister Sophia leading the effort. So between the year 2015 and June, 2021, our refugee support committee actually in partnership with IRC furnished 63 apartments complete with all household needs, including furnitures, household staff, groceries for all refugee family. And currently since August 15, MCC and SRVIC has come together because we realized the crisis is bigger than what any of us can do it alone. And we rallied together and we have jointly provide support, coordination to support the incoming displaced people. Sister Amina, would you pick the next slide? Yes. So MCC is providing the bi-weekly food distribution. We are also coordinating hot food for the family so that when they arrive, they reserve, they receive a hot meal cooked by one of our community members. We also have a car donation program that has been in existence for the past several years. And we are currently accepting donations of used vehicles that are in good working condition for the refugee families as well. Once they receive their driver's license. And we also have a, a ed toy drive that goes out to our Zakat families every year. And it's organized by the MCC Girl Scouts troop. SRVIC is also providing household goods to set up a home for these refugees. jointly MCC and SRVIC has provided since August 15, furniture supplies needed for nine additional apartments. And often with 24 hours turnaround time, we have also developed a pool of drivers. Very thank you to all the volunteers who have stepped forward to deliver food, household items to the families. We have also prepared infrastructure to match volunteers for transportation, visits to government agencies, translation, school registration and driving license. We have also recruited social workers from Alameda and Contra Costa County to answer questions and surface resources for us. So since August 15, we have served 17 households referred by IRRC, 37 households referred by JFCS, totaling a total of 102 individuals through apartment setup, welcome family hygiene packet, grocery, hot meals and bike donations. We've collected more than 506 donations from our Amazon wish list. And donors have generously responded to calls for specific donations and drop them off at MCC and SRVIC. In terms of cash donation and gift cards we have collected so far a total of more than $6,000. Okay, so now I want to introduce the three organizations that we are partnering with and supporting. So we will start with IRC, which is the International Rescue Committee. And we want to welcome Jordan to the panel. Thank you very much. Hi, thank you so much, everyone. So first of all, I'd like to just say a huge thank you for having me on this call today and really couldn't do the work that we do without MCC and without the partners and the community members that are that are here. It's been a really busy time. And as you've heard from the numbers just shared MCC has supported full housing setups, donation drives kits. I mean, we've had, you know, the list goes on an incredible amount of support. And literally this support we talk about all the time with our case workers. It is life saving for for our families but also for us trying to provide the services. Hi, Jordan Tofiri. I'm the director of the IRC Oakland office. I've been with IRC for a little over two years now. And my role is to oversee the operations of the of the office. I'm really glad to participate in this call because I've heard raving things about Chloe and her team. Our resettlement team depends on this partnership so much. So it's really great to see some faces here and to be here. I wanted to provide a brief update on some of the numbers of the arrivals and then talk a little bit about what we are seeing through IRC resettlement program in terms of the arrival statuses. Since July 1st, we have received 115 individuals or 38 cases of that. Of that total we've seen a combination of refugees, SIVs, so special immigrant visa holders, and then sort of a new categories that that we're calling parolees. I'm not sure I'm sure a lot of you have heard a lot of information out there. It's been quite confusing for us too as the resettlement agency staff. So I wanted to kind of give a brief overview of what you know the different categories are and what the services look like. As you probably all know the special immigrant visa holders are the folks that worked for the US government or were government contractors in Afghanistan for at least one year. And the visas cover their whole family. The refugees that we are seeing also include some individuals that have worked for the US government or government contractors sometimes less than a year in Afghanistan. Or they worked for maybe a US funded program or project, you know, or fleeing from other sort of categories that would qualify them as refugees. And then the parolees are individuals that have pending applications as special immigrant visa holders. So individuals that were in the process with their family of getting the SIV application and visa and had to leave for safety reasons. We also are seeing a category called humanitarian parolee which this final category are individuals who do not have a pending application and who will most likely seek asylum when they come to to the United States or once they're here. All these three categories, the services and the needs are are the same when they get here upon arrival. We need to provide housing as quickly as possible. And we've been allocating as many resources as possible for temporary housing. But unfortunately, the resources are limited. We've been mainly getting Airbnb's and hotel stays for families, but we are trying to build more partnerships with landlords that really understand our families experience coming to the country with no credit history with no employment history, limited references and trying to get an apartment and sign a lease. So that's been the toughest part is finding these landlords in the community that can really understand the experience that our families go through. For all of these individuals, regardless of status, they as Mr. Mojadidi, I think you eloquently put, you know, no matter who it was, they're all human, they're all coming here with, you know, your message was really important. They're all coming here with the clothes on their back, whether or not they had resources back home, you know, they're arriving with nothing and they have to start from the ground up. So our role as the resettlement agency is really to help them integrate as well as we can in the community, especially around community members that they feel a connection with, and to help them to rebuild their lives here from the ground up. So, aside from housing food, which we talked a little bit about the food distribution. That's been a high need housing setups we cannot thank Chloe and her team enough for the full housing setups that she's been doing for our families 17 so far. And the need is going to be growing. So that that's, that's an incredible support that we have. It's been so much community support with donations but there's also a challenge with a space and storage. So having a partner being able to go in and do full housing setups is just phenomenal. Other needs as they integrate is just, you know, community connection, being able to connect to the local mosques. So, you know, thanking the Muslim community out in Alameda County and Contra Costa counties for that for that connection. And being able to support the women especially who feel particularly isolated right now. Oftentimes, having the men in the family with more language skills, more English skills so you know trying to figure out ways to really integrate the women and and the children. So I'll leave it at that. I know that time is limited and and I want to allow for Faizia, I think, to go next and speak to JFC SC space. Yes, thank you so much and the partnership with the apartment setups has been wonderful. A great experience for us and Faizia from Jewish family and community services is up next. Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much brother for I do this poem is one of my favorite poems and very powerful and meaningful thank you so much for sharing this. And thank you so much Jordan for giving that role information about resettlement agencies and the services that we are providing. So I'm not going to repeat all this information and resettlement process that Jordan mentioned here because we are providing the same services because we are the same resettlement program and our services is also kind of providing those services from picking up the families from your poor to apply for social security cards and connect them with the public benefits and navigate them to medical system and and all those core services are part of the resettlement program for a GFC S East Bay as well. To go where our numbers judge family and community services served as of June 1 up to now we served 131 individuals. And that's just six individuals are from Burma that is all from Afghanistan. And these families are a combination of a special immigrant visa holders and parolees. Just to add with what Jordan shared I just would like to tell you guys the routes that we are getting families. So our normal cases coming to our headquarters. And those are either if it's a special immigrant visa holders or refugee population or parolees. They are all coming to our headquarters. They are assigning case to us and afterwards we are receiving their travel info and then we kind of come up with a reception plan and of course with the support of our partners. Usually we set up and staging in a house prior to their arrival and making sure that all the arrangement mates for the families. But some of these families are coming by their home. And they are being called as a walk in cases that could be a special immigrant visa holders or could be a parolee status families. After cobalt claps that and after that emergency evacuation. All those families were transported through emergency charters. But some of those families were allowed to accompany their family members who was US citizen or they had permanent residency documents. They joined their family members and they came to our community and they are in our community right now. Those are the families that are a little bit of disadvantages because for them to get connected with the resettlement programs and other partners and agencies. They take a little bit of time and for us as a resettlement agency to be able to serve them. It's also taking a little bit of time for us to send their case. Apply for benefits and wait for their case approval and to be able to provide services. So in these cases we have seen that MCC, other partners, they are doing a tremendous job holding all those families with their needs providing hot meals and fresh groceries and also helping families with gift cards, clothing. And all those donations has been made which is great. We really do appreciate that. And for past few weeks we have a lot of families that are humanitarian parolees status that they came as a walk in case they reached out and they were trying to get support from resettlement agencies. Unfortunately we were not able to take their cases on because we didn't have any guideline and instruction from our headquarters. As of last Friday Jewish family and community services got a guideline and instruction on how to submit benefits for walk in cases. So if you have families that are being here as a walk in case, regardless of their status, if they are a special immigrant visa holders or they're refugees or they are purely status, just reach out to us. We can apply for their benefits and send all their documents for resettlement process and benefits and they are all qualified for all the services that our regular cases that are coming through our pipeline are qualified. So in terms of benefits, there is no difference between any of those populations and in terms of resettlement program that these both population is Ivy refugees and parolees are qualified and eligible for the same financial support and quite similar resettlement program. There are a little bit differences in terms of providing the core services, but in terms of financial support and the funding that coming through a federal grant for them, the amount the same exact amount there is no difference. So just reach out to us if you have any of the families that are willing to be connected with resettlement agencies we will be more than happy to help them and support them. And just I want to take the opportunity to thanks all our partners and committees that help and support half-gant population through this crisis as Brother Oafredun said, for half-gants it's been more than 47 years to be a country that is being in a war. And we all kind of the generation that we are seeing right now they are all grow during the war. An unfortunate situation that happened recently and this crisis that these families are coming. There's a lot of emotions involved. They are terrified, they fear and they left, they left their loved ones behind. All those challenges that they are coming, the needs are so significant. If it's even in terms of needs of mental health, if it's the needs of any financial support for them to be able to cover the high housing costs in Bahia and of course for them to be able to start their new life. They left their houses of dream, the houses that they built from their hard working money for years and years and now they are starting from scratch. And it will take time for them and the healing process will take time. So we really appreciate the support of our community when still we are hopeful that the support will continue. I think we all of us have a long way to go. This crisis will continue and we are really here for it but still we are relying on our community support and I really want to appreciate that. Thank you so much everyone. Thank you, Fosya. Next we have Kelsey from Catholic Charities. Hi, thank you so much. Okay, it looks like you can hear me right. Okay. Salam, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate being included in this discussion tonight and I want to thank all the speakers who went before me. You guys are doing such amazing incredible work and I know it's been a really really exhausting busy time so thank you. Just to echo those last words, we also are just so appreciative of all of the support in the community, especially MCC, you are always so very welcoming to us. I know we had a bit of an emergency situation last week and I mean, you not only spoke to me once you spoke to me multiple times in the day and we're communicating throughout the weekend so we're just so appreciative of our partnership. My name is Kelsey Copeland. I'm the community coordinator for the refugee foster care program, which is run through Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. I have been in the role for over four years now. I'm going to give you a bit of an overview of what we do because it is very different actually from the other resettlement agencies that you've heard from tonight. And then I will go into from there talking a little bit more about this specific situation that we're facing right now. We resettle unaccompanied refugee minors. So, we specifically are working with children, minors who are under 18 who are refugees who have lost for various reasons who have lost or been separated from their parents and guardians We're not dealing with families or adults were just working with the with the minors. These are children who come to us from directly from refugee camps and other kinds of, you know, refugee settings from all over the world. They're approved for resettlement in the United States but because they are minors and because they've been separated and are no longer with their families, we have to then put them into foster homes. So, along with being a resettlement agency we are a licensed foster family agency with the state of California. And we are certifying homes all throughout the Bay Area through eight counties, including Contra Costa and Alameda and Santa Clara County. So, the youth come to us we put them into foster homes and then we actually work for a really long term vision, really closely with the foster families to support the youth and the families on an ongoing basis with continuous wrap around services. Everything from mental health care support to help with the schools help with all legal naturalization processes. Kind of the whole range of what you can imagine as part of a youth's life, including family dynamics and everything. And we have a pretty, we have a pretty big staff. And even though they have to be under 18 to join the program, we actually are able and very fortunate to support these well into their early adulthood up until age 24, sometimes even 25, which we're really grateful for, because it allows us to really stay with them and through that transitional age that can be so hard to make sure that they are in school and working and really more prepared to be independent and self sufficient by the time they leave the program. Okay, so that's a bit of an overview of what we do. Now, how that relates to what the current situation is. It has been told confirmed to us that there are over 200 unaccompanied minors who are in US soil we believe that the US military bases they are not in our custody yet. So I just want to make that clear because it's a common misconception and a question we get. Additionally, there are sort of two channels that youth similar like unaccompanied youth who have come from other countries go through. And right now, the Afghan youth are sort of in that other channel. However, we were anticipating that they are being processed through the help of UNICEF and other agencies. And some of those youth would eventually come to us. There has been recent legislation that again we don't a lot of question marks we don't know for sure, but it is seeming that we are anticipating that actually the youth might start being referred to our programs, much sooner. So, you know, our need is, is, is, is urgent. We want and hope as much as possible to have foster homes for youth and that do reflect the cultural and religious backgrounds of youth as much as we can. And then we are running a new, you know, that's pretty lengthy approval process. We need to follow all mandates and rules and regulations from the state of California. And of course, just, we want to make sure that homes are safe and are going to be successful where we're placing children. So we have a pretty in depth approval process, but we have a next our next round of training and process starting up for new parents. We have a next week. If you're interested, some things to know. We are really looking for long term homes, people who are willing to make more of a long term or permanent commitment to youth. But we don't know for sure what what we'll find some youth at what firm by all reporting it was very, very hectic during the evacuation so some youth may have family that will be identified and they will be able to reunify which of course is the number one hope or goal. But that said, most of the time and certainly in our history through other crises. We're looking for long term term placements that can create a very stable consistent home and sense of permanency for youth. Another thing to note is that there can be no more than six children living in a home that's just a bigger role that comes from the state. So that's something to consider as well. And also only of course to consider if you have. I know so many people have room in their hearts, but also if there's room in your home. A youth would need either their own bedroom or to share a bedroom with other children but they would have to be the same gender and close in age was typically within five years of age. And just to note that, you know, again, we don't know for sure what what to expect in this case the children are not in our care yet. But typically in the past, a lot of times unaccompanied minors are teenagers by the time they come to us. So again, I don't know for sure but usually it's teens there's a big need always for families who are willing to take in teenagers. So teens from anywhere in any culture can be a bit of an intimidating to consider but the youth in our program have been through a lot. They are quite amazing with their resiliency. And you know we believe that all children are deserving of love and care so we humbly ask you to consider teens as well. I know, similar note. We do see a mix and we anticipate that there will be a mix of both boys and girls, but we do often have a large need for for boys and I know that taking in teen boys can become a more complicated matter for some households. But it is a big need of ours so we ask you to please consider and think it over if your home might be a good fit for that. So my big request for foster parents it's always our biggest need, but other ways to that you might want to be involved. We of course are looking for support with language, translation interpretation, especially when youth first arrived, we want to make sure they understand that they're safe, that they have rights. And paperwork that we go over. So we definitely are anticipating a big need for Dari and Pashto language support. And we also sometimes we understand that some families are not in a position to be full on foster parents, but if especially if you think that you could offer some sort of cultural support and connection to a youth. We're also looking for individuals and families to just act as an extra, you know, loving friend from the community that can either help support the youth or maybe even support the families that we have. We have a youth placed in a home where the parents are not the same. Do not share a cultural background, but maybe someone else in the community wants to teach them some recipes to cook or about certain holidays or any, you know, any other way to be a friend or support to a foster family. That is something we're also looking for. So thank you very much. I'm just looking through my notes. I think that's all I have right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. We wanted to take a few questions for IRC and Jewish family and community services. So if you have any questions for them, please type them into the chat. They are some of them are in a different time zone and can't stay too long because it's very late where they are. And we do have one question. It says, could you please tell us how many refugees you're expecting in the next six months or more, and what amount is needed for each family. I'm not sure if you wanted to answer that. For Jewish family and community services, our proposed number for FY 20. FY 2022 is to resettle 290 individuals and that's in combination of a special immigrant visa holders and refugees. And also in addition to that, we proposed to resettle 120 parolees. So in total we are our proposal for FY 2022 is to resettle 410 individuals. And what was the next part of the question? I'm sorry, I didn't get the next part. How much is needed for each for these families or for each family. What are the needs in terms of like financial support? I'm guessing it's financially what it would, what amount is needed as each family is getting resettled by your organizations. So technically the amount that they are qualified for the question is about the RNP fund or the AP fund. So that's if you're a family of eight, then 1225 times eight. If you're a family of seven, then it's times seven. For folks that are single and families that are small sizes like family of two and family of three, it's a little bit kind of tight because they are also eligible for the same amount of financial support. And that amount is resettlement RNP fund and also AP fund, but also in addition to that they are qualified for a public benefit. So as of last Friday, we received approval that refugees, special immigrant visa holders and humanitarian parolees, they are all qualified for all public benefits. Cash heat, car fresh and medical as well. Wow. That's really great news. Yeah. Okay, so another question is, what can high school age people do to help out with IRC and Jewish family community services. So on our end. Thank you for that question on our end we've had donation drives. High gene kits, you know, activities, sometimes younger folks are able to not only get the items and do the drives but put the put the items together. We've had some groups that have done welcome cards for new arrivals that we then give when we give a hygiene kit so there are a few activities like this that we can that we can set up. And when things were when arrivals were a bit slower, we were able to have groups of students coming into our office, and actually doing some of these activities on site and sometimes meeting some of our families. You know, because of COVID and because of just the rate at which people are arriving we're not having an office activities like this but with that being said, high school groups can still participate in these things, you know, at their high school or elsewhere. We have a volunteers from all over and while we can't take on directly volunteers that are under 18 years old there are faith based groups that might have kids participating in their volunteer group. And so that's another way to help as well. Thank you. I don't see any other questions in the chat you can feel free to keep putting in questions, and we will continue now with our next set of slides. We wanted to thank our partners and those that have been supporting us. We have the thrift station located in the Tri Valley area, and they have been supporting us with clothing and household items. We wire community has been supporting us with hygiene kits that are believing that are part of our apartment setups for the families. The Alameda County Community Food Bank has been a huge partner for the MCC food pantry, not only providing food and produce, but recently through a grant. We were able to purchase a cargo van that will be used with our food pantry and also in the help of the apartment setups. We have had bad business bike models in Castro Valley secured eight bicycles for a group of single Afghan brothers, all living in the same home. That was a huge help for them, and the Afghan American Community Organization, their website is there. And we'll post it in the chat for you. They've also been huge supporters and partners with the food pantry. And I think next, we will move on to apartment setups. Hi, everyone. Um, so for apartment setups, we typically get a turnaround time of sometimes we get a week, but now we're getting shorter turnaround time like 24 hours. And if you could click on the list. You can see what the things we need. Sorry, can you, whoever's doing the slide can we go back to the slide please. If you click on the link that says things on the top. Yeah. Sorry. We will show you a list later after this. Basically, what we need to do is actually currently we're taking things from to list. We have put up an Amazon wish list for everyone who wants to donate. And you can go to the Amazon wish list and we will list currently what are the items mean we are missing in our apartment setup. The other places. Once we open up the link, you can see Okay, you should be able to see on the link. Right. What are the items and item marks and estuaries must be new. So we please please this is just a sample of items we need. Do not drop off items prior to contacting us. We do not have capacity to store any of these items on site. Before you buy anything or drop anything, please contact us at refugee MCC is paid off. Can we go back to the slide so we have. Yeah. So we'll be providing this deck to you at the end of the day and everyone on the call will get the deck so you can see the list okay. For the apartment setup we do you we you we utilize the view you volunteer groups to help organize and sort surprise the supplies as they are received at M. And we also look for volunteers to drive the donation to the family so like earlier was that very doing says that a family receive household items for setup so what happens is that we pack the items at service, we collect items at MCC as well, we put them together we call the volunteers on the mailing list, or we what we have a WhatsApp group currently and we will post we need volunteers to deliver fast supplies from MCC service to this location and we set free month or or currently conquered and then the whoever is available to say I have a van I have a car. And then we send the supplies to this location. And once we confirm the volunteer, we then provide the addresses to the volunteer directly. So, we don't share the information of who the who the recipients are, or the addresses, until we confirm the volunteer and it's only on a one to one basis. The you volunteers do typically come in on a Saturday morning or afternoon to help to sort and pack the supplies as we receive them. So a tip on donation, if it's chip scratch stain, or something that you have at home. If you, if you can use it is probably not a good idea to donate it just recycle it or trust trust. Okay, next slide please. Over to you. Sister Chloe over to you. Yes, can you hear me. Yeah. Okay, so, um, so we are, I'm going to talk about two aspects of furniture donation. So the first one is what we are providing to families. And these are larger furniture items. So what we are required by the government regulations to offer is beds and this is basically full size twin, which could include depending on how many people are in the family and space, it could be individual And then sometimes cribs, we, we have to always provide new mattresses so even if we can get used bed frames, or cribs, we have to still provide brand new mattresses for hygiene reasons. So we also provide dining tables chairs and sofas. These are things that need to be provided. We love it when we can provide some kind of storage, whether it's dressers wardrobes nightstand, something like that. If we don't have donated furniture from the community instead, a family just gets, you know, a plastic drawer set like a little plastic drawer set. So imagine trying to store anything in those right floor lamps are often useful because sometimes people are in apartments that don't have overhead lighting. And then things like coffee tables, entertainment centers, shelving desks, things like that. Again, if we have the capacity to provide those families, it's great. It really is dependent on what's being offered at the time and whether we have drivers to drive things to people. I see a question about air mattresses. I mean, that might be fine for temporarily, but obviously that's not something that people are going to want long term. All of the furniture donations that we take should be in like new condition, similarly to what Sister Nadia was saying, if it's chips, scratch, stained, broken or wobbly, it is probably not a good idea to donate it. And we really are trying to give, we're trying to make homes for people that we would want to live in ourselves. So I think Sophie just posted a link for donating furniture. If we could go to the next slide, we're going to talk a little bit about the process. So the link that Sophie just posted is what you would use if you have furniture that you want to donate. It takes a little bit of time for us to get back to you. We do try to confirm that the furniture is in like new condition and also the availability. Sometimes people are like, I'm moving out this weekend, I need it taken within the next three days. But that's just like by the will of Allah, do we happen to have a family and a driver that is able to drive things within the next three days, we can't make any promises like that. If you have the ability to hold on to things for longer than the probability of us being able to use your furniture is definitely higher. So what we do is we confirm that the items are in good condition. We, when a potential recipient family is identified, we show them the furniture through the photographs and we confirm that this is something that they want. And mostly whether it's something that would fit in their home because again, a lot of times we have larger families and very small apartments and so space is really of a premium. If the furniture donor can actually transport the item, it is wonderful and it's very much appreciated. But most of the time we don't have, you know, that offered to us and so instead we have volunteer drivers who we contact to coordinate logistics for pickup and drop off. And bear in mind that neither of the two message at MCC I can you go back from in a place, neither MCC or service have stored space for large furniture items. So, similar reasons we can't large bulky sofa sets sometimes we can use them, but not necessarily and sometimes what will happen is we split them up so maybe it's a big sofa and then a love seat, maybe a family of three might benefit from the love seat, and another family of four might benefit from the sofa. I realize that's not always convenient for people when they're moving and they want to get rid of their furniture but sometimes that's kind of how we have to operate and and yes we do provide tax receipts. If that's beneficial. Next slide please. Okay, so I believe that in the link. We are, you see the chat, the WhatsApp group to volunteer as a driver for furniture transport. I would really encourage everybody to, if you haven't already to sign up for our main volunteer list because this is the WhatsApp group specifically for people who want to drive. So if you want to drive furniture and that's all you want to do, then Hamdallah, you know you're welcome to only do this. But if you might be interested in other sorts of activities to then you can use the link that sister Sophia just put into the chat. And then we know that you have a variety of interests. It can also be helpful too because we can try to coordinate. If we know that you're in Concord and and the family that's having things being brought to them as in Concord, you know we can try to coordinate that kind of thing too. So for drivers pickup trucks and many bands are especially helpful. Sometimes a smaller car actually can work if we're just moving on some boxes. So as you can see will soon inshallah be getting a van, which is provided by a grant from the Alameda Alameda County Community Food Bank, and the main purpose of that van will be the use for our volunteers to bring food and furniture. So that's going to make it a lot easier for our volunteers to be able to take larger items. So thank you very much, and I'm sure I hope you will consider this will next sister Sahar you're up next. Everybody is like them and good evening to all of our panelists and to all of our attendees and when it's tuning into our webinar this evening. My name is Sahar Modi and I am one of the head volunteers for the MCC food pantry. I started out as a volunteer last year right at the, you know during the thick of cobit during March of 2020. Just like Sister Amina mentioned, you know we went from a small closet to being partners now with the Alameda County Community Food Bank and are able to help more families in need, which is a blessing in itself. So in regards to food donations, you know, the, in the slide right now, these are typically just, you know, common things that I'm Afghan myself so these are things that Afghans will consume and are preferable. In terms of perishable section, it's spices, rice, you know, things like beans and lentils, and of course, you know, oil and tea are things that they would definitely use in terms of refrigerated and hello meats. So we do have two large restaurant style refrigerators and one large freezer that we have in our mosque at MCC so we would be able to store the meat and the dairy and produce if donated to us. The only thing, yeah, so like it says on the slide, shelf-stable food that's been expired, please compost it. Food donations can be dropped off at MCC. It can also be dropped off on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well at our address. Another thing that's been done for the Afghan refugee food drive has been organizing a food drive. Our panelists had a food drive organized at her daughter's high school and they set up one of those canisters and they were able to donate food and that was subsequently brought over to MCC where we store it. And then as we get the request to prepare, you know, these food boxes for families, we are then able to do so. If we'd like, if you'd like to volunteer, that is our Google form that will, you know, you just put in your basic information and then we'll be able to keep in contact. Some of the things that volunteers help us do, we prepare bags of produce and staple food items for our food drive, which happens every other Saturday. You know, breaking down boxes, assisting with the cleanup that happens towards the end of our, you know, food pantry, food delivery services, which ends around 1pm. You can help deliver food bags to the families or help pick up free food items from the church and Livermore or windmill farms in San Ramon. So yes, volunteers can definitely do that. And now with the Afghan refugee families coming in, we also can have volunteers come in and prepare these large food boxes for them which include those staple items such as rice, oil, tea, etc. So volunteering is definitely a great thing at our food pantry and we definitely appreciate all of our volunteers. Next slide please. Sabine and Shazia. Assalamu alaikum everybody. My name is Sabine Asifali and I've been a volunteer with MCC for quite some time and with that I'd like to thank all our panelists and all our participants tonight for giving us your time on a Thursday. A very busy night. Alhamdulillah. With that and with everything I'd like to start with the Hadith of our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW that the best of you are those who feed others and with that comes the fact that the people that are coming in, the refugees that we are welcoming in. As they come, our intention over here is to feed the creation of Allah and with that I'll say this is more about preparing a hot and a fresh meal as our guests arrive into this country. This is going to be their very first meal as they enter this country and as travelers, as visitors, we all know that when you're traveling and you're tired, you want to get home, you want to get into your bed, you want to get some rest and before rest will come a hot meal and subhanAllah this is going to be one of the ways to serve your creator. This group of volunteers are named as hot food warriors and we call this group of volunteers warriors because the request for hot meals come with a very short notice. And subhanAllah our volunteers have always been very generous up and about with all the zeal and enthusiasm to really come up with a meal and ready to feed Alhamdulillah. You can volunteer to cook or you can even volunteer to have it catered from a local halal restaurant, delicious meals to welcome the families as they arrive Alhamdulillah. The way we would like, we basically have a few bullet points here down for everybody who would like to volunteer for preparing the hot meal. Meals can be packaged in individual containers or large trays for the family to share. We usually on our end whenever we are asking a volunteer to prepare a meal we give them the number of family members in that family that way it helps them to prepare. We kind of will try or I would say that we do mention if there are any young children in the family so we make sure there's not not spicy food and typical meals will include rice, meat and vegetables with yogurt or salad accompanied. Meals can be dropped off at MCC and delivery will be arranged or they can be dropped directly to the arriving families. Tips obviously not to spice your oily not leaking through the containers and couple tips for the drivers making sure your food is nicely packed and secure. No food dripping, no spilling Alhamdulillah and it's always lovely to have a little bit of a disposable paper placed silverware napkins in the entire package. So obviously the apartment will be set up for them, but figuring out what was where are the plates, where are the spoons, none of those questions so the food arrives and it's ready to be served. And Shazia, do you have anything to share before I share something? No you go ahead, that's what we all needed. And Alhamdulillah one last thing I'd like to say is that serving others through feeding is definitely a source of Sadaqah Jaria and it's basically a Sadaqah on your end and it is always very important that those who cook have a deep intention to cook, eat and share food for Allah's sake to ensure this action is spiritually meaningful and that we reap its rewards in the year after. So one of the most profound and useful ways to serve the patient. Thank you. The last thing would be that I did share the WhatsApp chat link down there in the chat for joining the WhatsApp group for the food hot meal preparations. But we would also look at ways to share that link if you are interested in joining that group, definitely click on that link and that way you are up to date with how and what needs to be done. Thanks. Thank you Sister Sabine. Next slide please. Okay, so IRC has had a buddy program to help the refugees and we are trying to work towards implementing a similar program for the incoming refugees. The arriving refugee families are taken care of by one of the local refugee organizations for the first 90 days after their arrival. They help each family with paperwork, temporary and eventually permanent housing. Once the 90 days ends, some families, especially those without family or friends already established in the area have more needs. As a buddy or mentor, there are two options. You could work with one family for approximately three to six months. So yes, this is something that requires someone who has time to dedicate to this one family. And you will help fulfill their needs and help them better adjust to their new lives. Or you could help some families with a very specific task. Some families coming into the country, they have someone in the family that already speaks English. They might have family or friends that are already here. So the needs that they have are not as, they're not as severe as some of the other families that might be coming in that don't speak any English, and they don't have any family or friends already established here in the area. So some examples for what we are considering to have the buddies do would be driving lessons. And again, this is a choice you would have to make because obviously the refugees don't have their own vehicle. So you would have to agree to allowing that refugee use your own vehicle, helping them with school registration, driving them to appointments, translating for them, showing them how to use public transportation, touring them around the neighborhood and find where are the Halal markets, where is the message where the other doctors offices other places that they have to go to, or helping them with resume writing and job applications. Next slide. Okay, so speaking, Dari or Pashto is a plus but it's not required. As we mentioned, some of the families are fluent in English. So we have two volunteers that are going to kind of take the lead with the buddy program. Sister usra will be our buddy liaison, and her role will be to assess the needs of the families. Match them with the buddy and set approximate end dates so both the family and the buddy are clear about the time or length of commitment the assistance will be available. And then sister Nia will be our buddy mentor. She will meet and advise the buddies in regular zoom sessions established times that she's available to work with the mentors, offering them support and guidance throughout the duration of the mentoring relationship. And the mentor will also have access to social workers one that works in Alameda County, and one that works in Contra Costa County with lists of resources and things like that as well. That will be shared with the buddies to make this as easy of an experience as possible for everyone involved. Next slide. Can we go on tips on donation please. The next. Okay, so I think, thank you for spending time with us but I think what we have to say to you is this. If it's an item that's chip scratch taint broken expired. These are things we really cannot take and you know if you cannot use it, we really can't use it. And if you're holding, if you have big household items like king bed, king beds, queen beds, or big sofa sets, big dining table, it's going to take us a really long time to find homes for them. And King bed is almost is never be used because they literally cannot fit into an apartment some bedroom that we have for the refugee so. So these items, perhaps you can sell them and donate the money to the program, if that's how you want to. You really want to contribute. Okay, and do not drop off unsolicited donation items at MCC or service, even if the items on the list, if you do not contact us and let us know. And we do not agree to it, we cannot use them, and we don't have storage for them at MCC or at service. Okay, and on tips on donation. We are not collecting clothes at the moment. We do not have space for clothes and we will, we are not planning to collect clothes at both MCC and SRV IC. Please do not drop off clothes to us, because we will have to put them in the recycling bin we cannot take clothes at this point in time. Okay. Next slide. So if you have, if, if you have other capabilities and expertise, you can consider volunteering at one of these other organizations who are also providing support for the refugees. Next slide. So this slide provides all the links to the volunteer opportunities and donation opportunities that you have seen in the chat. All of you who are on this webinar will receive the slide back so you don't have to busy copy down at the links. Okay. And that's all. Sister Sahar will take us to the closing press. I think we wanted to ask first if anyone has any questions that we haven't answered in the discussion as we went through the slides. If you could post them in the chat, then we'll be happy to, to answer them. Okay, so here's a question have we identified needs for mental health services. Yes, we have, and we have two organizations that are serving the needs for mental health. We have the Khalil Center, which has been in the area for quite some time, and they are currently doing zoom sessions for their clients. And we can refer any Afghan refugees coming in that may need mental health services we can refer them to the Khalil Center. And we also have a new mental health organization that is just getting started called called Maristan that's being led by Dr. Rania Awad. And as soon as their organization is up and running and they're able to accept clients we will also refer them to Maristan as well. And both of these organizations are supported. Both of these organizations are supported by MCC. I can take this question. Do we only work with refugees from Afghanistan? Overall, we've, we've always worked with many different refugees that have come. Nowadays, obviously, the need is Afghan refugees, but we've never only worked with certain families from certain areas or even certain religions we've always helped through IRC or any of the other organizations. And then as far as the time commitment. That's another question that was asked. So the time commitment can actually be anything that is easier for you. It could be one time. It could be weekly. It could be a monthly whatever you, whatever you can give, even if you can drive and donate furniture, donated furniture one time. That will be helped with our organizations, all the organizations and I just wanted to clarify that MCC and service we're all volunteers and we actually don't take any overhead for any of the money donated. So that was another question. And then also I wanted to let you guys know that we've been doing a refugee setups through service and MCC since 2015 and before COVID. We had the opportunities to actually go in, we would wash the seats, set up the bed, set up the apartments, you know, really even sometimes clean them with different volunteers, even bringing in some youth. With their parents or even classrooms, classes like homeschooling co-ops or things like that. But unfortunately with COVID, we don't have that ability anymore we generally just drop the items and the families set up the apartments themselves. Those are the only questions. And if you're another question was if I'm only free on the weekend actually in the past, the weekends actually were it wasn't easy to help because we would be working with IRC, which they work Monday through Friday, but because of the crisis, we've been, we sometimes get a 24 hour notice on Friday and we would be working up on Saturday. The turnaround time is very short. So sometimes I feel like people there's so many people who want to volunteer and it's hard for us to give people the opportunity to give a back so please do be generous with us because we do try to help all the people who signed up on the Google form to volunteer. And we try to give everyone the opportunity to help but it's been really hard to try to keep up with a really quick turnaround of help, and then also including others to help us along the way so Sister Sahar if you'd like to lead us in the, in the closing. So, recite as a closing for our program. As-Salaam-Arahm-I-Raheem. Wa-All-As-Sar. Insana-La-Vee-Khusar. Wa-All-Ladina-Amanu. Wa-Ameen-Usa-Lahati. Wa-Taw-Saw-Al-Haqi. Wa-Taw-Saw-Al-Sabar. Subhana-Rabbi-Kara. Wa-Lay-Zat-Lay-Muay-Usifun. Wa-Salaam-Lal-Mu'R-Saleen. Wa-Lal-Hamdu-Lal-Nahir-Rabbi-Nalameen. Thank you so much. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for your generosity, all of your donations, all of your support. As Sophia said, we are working through the volunteer list. Continue to reach out to us at refugeeatmccespe.org with any questions that you have. And we are doing our best to include all of you in this wonderful effort. And we thank you so much for all your support. Continue to make to offer. Thank you. And any suggestions or questions you have, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for attending tonight. And as Nadia said, we will send out the deck and all of the links so that you can reach out to us and sign up for the different volunteer efforts. Thank you very much.