Announcement
On Wednesday, September 29, the IRC in Atlanta’s Executive Director, Justin Howell, hosted a webinar briefing with our partners—Alpa Amin, Executive Director of Georgia Asylum & Immigration Network (GAIN); Marjan Nadir, Economic Empowerment Manager at Refugee Women’s Network (RWN); and Chris Purdy, Director of Veterans for American Ideals and Outreach at Human Rights First—to discuss our work and how the community can help us welcome and support new Afghan arrivals in Georgia and continue our more than 40-year history of welcoming refugees to our state.
WATCH: Welcoming Our Afghan Allies to Georgia Webinar Recording
Justin recently returned from a two-week deployment to a US government facility out of state, where he served as the NGO lead in welcoming and processing Afghan evacuees. This briefing offers insight into his experience and how the IRC in Atlanta is preparing to welcome 800 of the 1,100 Afghan humanitarian parolees who will make Georgia their new home in the months to come, with the support of partner organizations in our community like GAIN and RWN, and advocates like Veterans for American Ideals.
The IRC in Atlanta launches $1.7million fundraising campaign
During the webinar, Justin announced that the IRC in Atlanta has launched a $1.7million fundraising campaign to assist in welcoming and supporting our Afghan allies. This ambitious goal will ensure newly arriving families have everything they need to integrate and thrive in our communities, and we need support from individuals, corporate partners, and community sponsors!
In addition to welcoming 800 Afghan humanitarian parolees in fiscal year 2022—which begins October 1, 2021—the IRC in Atlanta will also welcome 900 refugee arrivals from countries including Syria, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala, and Somalia, as well as 60 Afghan Special Immigrant Visa recipients.
Please consider becoming a monthly donor at any amount, or making a one-time donation, to help our local, Atlanta-based staff to continue welcoming and serving refugees, SIVs and humanitarian parolees from Afghanistan and other crisis zones around the world in the months to come.
When you donate to the IRC in Atlanta, you provide emergency financial support for families to cover any unmet housing and medical costs. You support the distribution of food, school supplies, hygiene kits and other resources to new Americans arriving in Georgia. You invest in our local staff capacity—the heart of our essential programs and services—so there are compassionate and empathetic professionals ready to welcome families to their new home and help them secure employment, learn English, enroll in school and start to rebuild their lives. No donation is too small! Rescue.org/GiveAtlanta
The webinar and announcement of the IRC in Atlanta’s $1.7 million fundraising campaign to assist in welcoming 800 Afghan humanitarian parolees to Georgia was also covered by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
READ: Atlanta-area nonprofit asks for help with 800 Afghans on the way
To learn more about the work of the IRC in Atlanta and for information on how you can get involved with the IRC as a donor or volunteer, please contact Development Director, Heloise Ahoure, at [email protected] or 678-636-8941.
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