Family Stories
As of September 22, 2023, we have provided comprehensive resettlement services to 18 families, 14 of which are in Westchester County. We have provided rental support, household furnishings and clothing for hundreds of families in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.
We resettled an Afghan family of four in Westchester County at the end of October. The father worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
In this video, he describes his family’s challenges in getting into the Kabul airport in August and their subsequent journey to Qatar, Germany, Philadelphia, New Mexico and finally New York in late October.
It is a remarkable story!
Our first refugee to arrive in Westchester was a young man from Pakistan.
He quickly began English classes at a community center, learned to navigate American grocery stores and laundromats, and made his way around town on a generously donated bicycle.
Our employment committee found him an excellent job with a local golf club where he worked overtime almost every weekend.
He became completely self-sufficient after one year and is now successfully driving long-haul truck routes across America.
Our second refugees arrived in 2018, a family of six from Afghanistan. This family were recipients of Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) due to the father’s work with the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
The family arrived with four beautiful sons who were quickly integrated into classes in their public schools by our education committee. The mother of this family learned her way around the neighborhood and has used her impressive culinary skills to cater several NFR events.
With help from our employment committee, the father of this family found a job at a local hospital with excellent opportunities for advancement. They recently moved into a new home in White Plains.
Our third family to arrive in Westchester were a family of three, also SIVs from Afghanistan.
This young couple with a toddler arrived and began making their apartment into an Afghan home. The mother is improving her English conversation skills through at-home tutoring from our education committee.
With an unusual complement of skills and experience and excellent English, the father was employed by a shipping company after only three months by a local small business.
The family has quickly become integrated into the growing community of refugees in our area. They are expecting their second child.
Lives We've Helped
A family who has experienced significant hardship, most recently due to the father’s serious cancer diagnosis and ongoing chemotherapy treatment.
A family whose home was bombed, leaving them with extensive injuries.
A widow with two very young children facing financial difficulties.
Funds to purchase kitchen equipment for a Syrian woman starting a new catering business.
Relocation assistance for a family moving to a more affordable community.
Money for essentials (clothing, toiletries, etc.) for an unaccompanied pregnant teen who arrived from the southern border with no belongings.
Travel money to attend ESL lessons for one of the area's relocated Syrian moms.
Transportation funds for a Sri Lankan refugee who found employment at a new job requiring a metro card.
Application fees for a young Syrian woman trained as a dentist and ready for her first residency in the U.S.
Rent Support
An Afghan family arrived in the U.S. only to find that the support they had been promised from relatives was not, in reality, available. We were contacted by HIAS and asked to consider how we might help this family. We paid their rent for six months until the father was fully employed.
A family from Syria had finished their initial resettlement period when both parents experienced serious health issues. NFR helped this family of five move to a better apartment and provided rent money for 12 months while they recovered and were able to be self-supporting.
One young woman from Syria who was the mother of a toddler and was three months pregnant, was widowed by a tragic automobile accident soon after their arrival. Besides the trauma of losing her husband and the father of her children, she now was left with no means of financial or emotional support. NFR formed a partnership with an individual donor and a local mosque to help pay this young mother’s rent for 18 months.
