Since we last wrote in the Spring Glen Church newsletter almost a year ago, HARRT is now sponsoring two more families, and for the first time, two at once! We have an urgent need for financial support and so we are reaching out to the Spring Glen Church community once again. We are so grateful for your past generosity and thanks to private donors, your donations will be matched dollar for dollar until July 4th.

Although we might not have chosen to take on a new family while we were still supporting another one, we actually welcomed two more within a few weeks, in November and just after the new year. The Afghan family we wrote about last June, our 4th family, were still in their first. year here. But we felt a compelling need to help after the presidential election. Throughout the refugee resettlement community, there were feelings of alarm and a need for speed; fully justified as it turned out. IRIS asked co-sponsor groups like HARRT to welcome new families prior to Inauguration Day, and we agreed.

Family 5, an Afghan family, whose breadwinner helped the United States during the Afghan war and hence were special targets of the Taliban, arrived in late November. Barely had we gotten to know this family when we said yes to Family 6, a Syrian family of five who had been living as refugees in Turkey for a decade. Suddenly, 10 new people were depending on us for everything!

Family 5 has a father, mother, and children in high school, middle school and elementary school. So far, the father is working part time and the high schooler is working after school, with hopes for more hours during the summer. The children are all quickly learning English, but for the father it is going more slowly, though he diligently attends English classes. He knows he has to find more work and we are helping.

Family 6, with three potential workers and one school-age child, arrived with nobody speaking any English. Like Family 5, they are anxious to become independent and make their way in the US, but the language barrier has been a significant hindrance to their finding jobs. Very recently, the father started a part time job, and the 19 year old son is very eager to work as well. The father and two adult children are studying English.

The fallout from the policies of the current administration has been more dire and swift than anyone expected. Contracts with IRIS to support families who had already arrived were summarily canceled. Fortunately for our two new families, HARRT has had the resources to provide needed services (like rent support) without interruption, but the fiscal strain of supporting two families for longer than anticipated will begin to show in the next several months. We may have to help pay the rent of both families for a year or longer.

Each family could have a licensed driver by the end of the year, and we would like to continue helping clients purchase their first used car—a complete game changer in terms of job options and not being dependent on our small group to drive them to appointments.

We are setting an ambitious fundraising goal of $25,000 by the 4th of July. Fortunately, we have secured the promise of half that amount, $12,500, in matching funds from private donors, and we are hoping to capture every dollar of it.

We are a core group of about a dozen people who find housing, arrange utilities, register and advocate for kids in school, set up medical and dental appointments, find and enroll adults in ESL classes, do one-on-one ESL and provide transportation for these newcomers.

We can never overstate the importance of Spring Glen Church in HARRT’s 3.5 years of existence. You have been a source of every kind of support we need. Your participation in this fundraising effort will be met with continued gratitude. This link takes you to our donor page! https://springglenchurch.org/harrt

Please contact us with any questions!
HARRTCt@gmail.com