(OC Register) Here’s how to help Afghan refugees arriving in Southern California

Local organizations are taking donations and asking for volunteers to help support families who've fled from Afghanistan.

When Irvine resident Nasim Fekrat saw reports about Afghan refugees coming to Southern California, he knew he wanted to help.

He also understood their plight. Fekrat immigrated from Afghanistan in 2009. The 38-year-old is now a PhD student at UC Irvine, studying anthropology with a focus on Afghan immigrants’ experience and how the war has impacted them.

“I feel how hard it is to leave your home and arrive at a completely strange place,” Fekrat said. Plus, he added, “We all need help in one way or another. As the old adage goes, what goes around comes around.”

News coverage of Afghans fleeing their country as U.S. forces withdrew and the Taliban took over has prompted residents across Southern California to reach out to local political leaders, media outlets and nonprofits, asking how they can help.

Not everyone has the personal connection, or the language and cultural skills, that Fekrat brings to the table. But organizations working to resettle Afghan evacuees in local communities say there’s something everyone can do.

“We are looking for community support to make these families welcome,” said Stanford Prescott, a spokesman with the local branch of the International Rescue Committee, which is helping Afghans establish new lives in Los Angeles and San Diego.

One challenge is that some of the Afghans who escaped in the chaos before Tuesday’s deadline for U.S. forces to withdraw, and many who are still finding ways out, were not able to get officially designated as “refugees,” noted Masih Fouladi, spokesman with CAIR-LA, a Muslim civil rights group in need of support as it’s still trying to help 140 people flee Afghanistan.

While the term is used generically, only official refugees are guaranteed certain services. Designated resettlement agencies pick refugees up from the airport, arrange housing, help them apply for Social Security cards, and enroll their kids in school. Federal funding helps cover many of those costs for several weeks after refugees arrive, though groups resettling refugees — including Anaheim-based Access California Services — still need financial and volunteer support to assist the large wave of families now coming.

But there are strict requirements to get official refugee immigration status, Fouladi noted, and the process can take months or even years. So many of the Afghans arriving now are coming under “humanitarian parole” status, which is used for emergency immigration cases. That status doesn’t come with the same financial benefits and support system that’s in place for official refugees.

Quickly finding affordable housing is the biggest challenge, given the high cost of living in Southern California. But organizations say new arrivals also need help in everything from furnishing their homes to finding translators who speak Dari or Pashto to getting jobs.

That’s where local nonprofits — and the community members who support them — come into play.

Here’s a roundup of local organizations directly assisting Afghan families as they arrive in Southern California. All are in need of financial support, but they also offer other ways residents can support their efforts.

To read the full article, visit The Orange County Register