Connecticut Church Helps Resettle Iraqi Family

Are you ready to help? Are you ready to move fast?

The Reverend W. Evan Golder maps out the needs as represented by one Iraqi family being resettled in the U.S.

Connecticut Church Helps Resettle Iraqi Family
http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/junjul08/connecticut-church-helps.html
By W. Evan Golder, United Church of Christ, June/July 2008

“Little notice, big welcome:

Two weeks.

That's all the time Iraqi refugees Hisham Ahmed Kadhim and his wife, Maysaa Lelo, both in their 20s, had to prepare for a life-changing move with their 2-year-old son from Amman, Jordan, to a new life in the United States.

Two weeks.

That's all the time Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven, Conn., had to find a host group to help resettle this Iraqi refugee family.

Two weeks.

That's all the time the informal refugee resettlement committee at Spring Glen UCC in Hamden, Conn., had to locate a vacant apartment near a bus line, come up with the first month's rent and security deposit, and completely furnish this new home by the time the refugee family stepped off the plane.

Two weeks was all anyone had.”